Dear God, what an awful situation. And happening everywhere, every day. I keep thinking that we've tried the punitive route, the "goddammit, just say no, or we'll lock you up" method. The death penalty (as another commenter suggested in desperation, I guess) seems like more of the same. If a little bit didn't work, I'm not sure why a lot would. After all, in the 1600s, or whenever it was, when stealing turnips was a hanging offence, it didn't stop people from stealing turnips. I thought Mia's comments were right on target. Add to that the pretty big mountain of scientific evidence that addiction is correlated with specific brain chemistries, and the thought that comes to me is that maybe we're going about it in exactly the wrong way. Instead of punishing, we should decriminalize everything. (I'm not saying legalize, because then they could start advertising the stuff. Doesn't bear thinking about.) Hard drugs would be available on prescription, or some sort of controlled setting, which would make it easier to control dose and purity, and would make it easier to provide education, treatment, or any kind of help if the addict wanted it. (As far as I'm concerned, distilled alcohol belongs in the hard drug group.) Legality would also make the drugs a lot cheaper, which by itself would reduce a lot of the criminal side effects, locally and internationally. The fear is that without the horrors that go with criminal drugs, "everybody" will become an addict. I doubt that, since not everyone is currently an alcoholic or nicotine addict. And I really wonder if the social costs of addicts who take a trip to their corner pharmacy every week, who don't overdose, whose health can be monitored, would really be that much greater than our current situation.