In the recent media coverage of inequities and anomolies in sentencing guidelines, disparaties in sentences for crimes involving powder vs crack cocaine were cited as a cause for the disproportionate incarceration of blacks, who seem to prefer to smoke rather than snort their coke. Left unanswered are logical questions such as: were crack penalties increased relative to powder cocaine penalties to persecute the poor blacks for whom crack is the drug of choice? and (bizarrely) should criminal penalties be adjusted to ensure prison populations are relatively proportionate to the nation's racial proportions. (If the LA jail is too crowded, you let the white celebrity in and release a poor black instead.)

But here is my real point:

The criminalization of drug sales and use has clogged our prisons and the judicial systems that puts users in prisons. De-criminalizing drug sales and use would ease prison cost and crowding, but would also place the general public at increased risk from people made stupid, incompetent and crazy by mind and judgement altering substances.

Perhaps a solution lies in eliminating criminal penalties for simply selling or using drugs and increasing penalties for crimes in which drug or alcohol are a factor. Sentences are increased for people who commit a crime with a firearm. Why not simply increase penalties for people who commit a crime - any crime - with drugs in their system? Abuse your spouse or kids with drugs in your system? Stiffer penalty. Run a traffic light with drugs in your system? Stiffer penalty.  Increased drug testing in schools and the workplace would help insure that those environments remain safe and sober. The annual cost of drug tests would certainly increase, but it would most likely be offset by a reduction in the cost of prisons.

Such a policy would provide increased protection from people who use drugs and commit crimes, while protecting the freedom of people to engage in self-destructive behavior as long as it doesn't impact the welfare of others.