Today, more than 80 percent of Republicans, Democrats and independents agree that the war on drugs has failed, according to a new nationwide poll of registered voters from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Drug Policy Alliance. More than two-thirds of voters say drugs are a public health issue and criminal penalties should be removed for all drugs, not just cannabis, so the money spent on drug enforcement can be reinvested into addiction treatment and mental health services. Decriminalizing people involved with drugs and refocusing resources on public health would mark the beginning of the end of the drug war, but federal drug laws prohibiting drugs remain frozen in time. Where they exist, state and local reforms move slowly and are often limited to cannabis or small amounts of drugs.
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