Alabama suffers crime because of drugs, it punishes people because of drugs, it builds billion dollar prisons and signs billion dollar prison healthcare deals because its justice system is overrun by the consequences of drugs. It forces people to spend lifetimes in prison because of drugs, it uses the presence of drugs as an excuse to put addicts back inside, and if it put a fraction of the effort into rehabilitation it would save more people, more money and more families.
I just can't behind this 'let's go easy on drug users and drug sellers" mentality. I'm in California, and I swear the whole drug use and homeless crisis is getting worse, because we aren't really punishing drug users. We're just leaving them alone,...meanwhile, they're robbing stores, building homeless camps where they can use drugs..etc...it's just crazy. Look at places like Kensington in Philly...where it's literally zombies walking around half dead...and no one seems to care.
Drug use is often just a symptom of self medication for mental health disorders (obviously not always). Punishing people and then pushing them back out to the community clearly doesn't work.
So perhaps look at addressing the cause rather than the symptoms.
It's really out of control. Just last week I was in my Uber to work and had to see an encampment of the most destitute people in the city forced to live on the street because a bunch of NIMBYs don't want shelters near them (they wanted to build one near my condo building and you'd better believe I gave them a piece of my mind about letting a bunch of drug addicts moving into real buildings in my neighborhood). It's horrible the way they turn to drugs because if they're going to die on the streets anyway they might add well die high. If we just arrest them all then at least they can contribute to the economy by providing free labor for a private prison! Anyway, the sight of those people made me vomit right there in the Uber. I'd rather have to pay the cleaning fee than walk the three blocks to work and actually have to SMELL those people!
Sure, I'll mind my own business... if those same homeless people will stop coming up to me asking for money, stop using drugs around my work, stop drinking alcohol and yelling at people, and stop shitting and pissing on the building I work at.