Four more states have legalized recreational marijuana, including relatively conservative Montana, South Dakota, and Arizona. Oregon voted to decriminalize hard drugs.
We appear to be on a path toward ending the failed and destructive war on drugs, with the states taking the lead (as so often happens in American politics).
I predict these states will set up stupidly counterproductive regulatory regimes for marijuana, but that will still be an improvement over the status quo. Oregon is moving to treat drug addiction as a health problem rather than a crime problem, an approach that has worked well elsewhere.
I applaud Oregon. Making something illegal doesn't stop it from happening. It is in fact not the slightest of deterrents to those intending to do that. Funding social programs, recovery facilities and educational programs help far more than the fear of police. Care and help being available to people with mental health issues would go a long way towards helping deter addiction. Opportunities to thrive in a healthy manner in all areas will prevent the creation of people who feel that they do not have any other option than to turn to doing and/or dealing drugs as a way of life. A hammer is not the right tool for every job.
Sadly, if they use the hammer, they can seize property, charge fines and destroy people's lives in order to earn money and that is so juicy an opportunity that the other solutions seem irrelevant. I feel -at times- police are simply tax collectors with a gun. And that is not the fault of the officer, but of the system in which they are made to operate.