A safe retreat from the war on drugs

The threat of punishment doesn’t drive people to quit drugs, but rather to hide their use.

While the world has been fixated on the results of the presidential election in the United States, less attention has been paid to another outcome of last Tuesday’s vote: significant steps toward decriminalisation of drugs in several US states. One state—Oregon—is now set to abolish criminal penalties for possession of small quantities of all illegal drugs, from heroin to methamphetamine. This approach should be applauded—and adopted far more broadly.