> I'm common sense. Common sense is a great place to start from! Then you do science. You predict what will happen under various policies; you try some options

> I'm common sense. Common sense is a great place to start from! Then you do science. You predict what will happen under various policies; you try some options and observe what happens; you revise your understanding of the problem; and repeat. From the few places where people are thinking that way, it seems like the best approach is neither criminal law nor pure legalization, but regulation, treatment and harm reduction. There are some examples in this report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy: http://www.undrugcontrol.info/images/stories/documents/Global_Commission_Report_FINAL.pdf http://www.undrugcontrol.info/images/stories/documents/Globa... But we still have a huge amount to learn, because for the most part we're not even trying -- just sticking with the "common sense" approach of looking for a larger hammer, when hitting the problem with a smaller hammer failed to work.