I want to make it clear, first of all, that I do agree with what you've said in terms of the law however, I agree and disagree on a 50/50 basis in terms of drugs. This might also stem from my personal involvement however, and not because the law is the law, drugs are a problem which needs to be dealt with. The current way of dealing with drugs is an issue. Repeat offenders, and in this case I refer only to hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine etc, are perhaps people who 'choose' not to get back on track with their lives. If caught again and again, they will appear in court again and again - at least that's how things are in South Africa but then again, we have a rather grotesque system which allows even rapists to receive bail despite overwhelming evidence presented by the state. Case in point was a drug user who also distributes. He was caught with some 131 grams of heroin and allowed out on bail of R1000 - equatable to $79.76 - prior to this he had been charged with possession, intent to sell, dealing and so on and yet, he was again not sentenced. He had also not opted to receive state paid for treatment at a rehabilitation centre - I also belive this same person is dead now. Aside of the fact that my country's law system is superbly inferior and inadequate beyond measure, this person had the option of free treatment and could have gotten their life back on track, hence my point that most people just want to 'not try'. However, taking America's system into account, where you can go to prison for being in possession of a joint/slope that is seriously (pardon the language) fucked up - that is ruining someone's life beyond measure - this also seems to be highly the case when African-Americans are caught with weed. In South Africa, people get caught with weed and let out on an admission of guilt fine of around R200 - probably $13 - $15. As for indoctrination during school years, as real as that may be, I don't see how this influences someone's choice to experiment with drugs - that would be more likely the cause of social/peer pressure and a need to fit in. In terms of the war on drugs, that is a war which will never be won. I heard an interesting theory once that through the complete world-wide legalisation of all forms of drugs, the war would eventually be over due to drugs becoming so easy to get and that prices for drugs would drop tremendously, as well as hard drugs would eventually cause the death of most users - this however being a rather stomach turning theory put me off. What I personally believe is that better initiatives need to be enforced in terms of educating people about drugs, especially people who are interested in trying drugs for the first time - an informed bad decision is better than a bad decision. And then also, a study recently found that people who suffer from mental disease are more likely to experiment with drugs and perhaps become addicted in the process so technically, we're pretty much still (again, pardon the language) fucked irrespective of anyone's stance on drugs, even the law's stance on it. And besides, some drug users have no care in the world and would not be bothered committing an actual crime to get money and in so doing, their next fix. I hope you don't mind me sharing my thoughts, I in no way am aiming to pick a fight on the subject, just sharing thoughts as whatever anyone else is doing to actually fix what is severely broken is clearly not working and something new needs to be done. (PS. If drugs remain illegal, the same needs to be done with alcohol).