Maybe the USA can learn something from Portugal, where all drugs were decriminalized in 2001? Compared to Portugal, drug overdose deaths per million in neighboring Spain are 2.5X as high, 3.5X as high in the EU, 10X as high in the UK and 31X as high in the USA.

Portugal decriminalized the use of all drugs in 2001. Weed, cocaine, heroin, you name it — Portugal decided to treat possession and use of small quantities of these drugs as a public health issue, not a criminal one. The drugs were still illegal, of course. But now getting caught with them meant a small fine and maybe a referral to a treatment program — not jail time and a criminal record.

Read the full article at aei.org