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RoyGBiv wrote: If the threat of jail goes away, and we reallocate a portion of those enforcement expenditures towards more proactive intervention, treatment and remediation, we have a better chance of breaking that cycle of destruction.

I agree that the war on drugs has been lost for a long time. CO and WA will be good test cases for whether the removal of legal threat does anything to help with the destruction cycle. I'm very doubtful.

I'm not sure that legalizing drugs solves anything but what we are doing isn't working either. Other than the crimes that they commit to feed their drug habits, I'd prefer have people live with the consequences of their own decisions. But, unfortunately, parents who abuse drugs are a different story.

http://www.childhelp.org/pages/statisti ... substances

As many as two-thirds of the people in treatment for drug abuse reported being abused or neglected as children

There are people who abuse their kids and are alcohol or drug abusers, too. But many/most are. Battered children are more likely to batter their children. Abused children because of drugs and alcohol appear to turn into substance abusers themselves too often.

I don't think that there is an easy answer.