I'm wondering how many people in this thread have seen local communities destroyed by hard drugs. As someone who has seen some of Nebraska's small towns ruined by meth, I'd be fine with every single meth dealer getting thrown behind bars for long sentences. So long as they haven't turned to a life of violent crime, the addicts need to be sent to treatment facilities, but the dealers I have no sympathy for and I want them off the streets.
My parents taught on an Indian reservation for 15 years. I know. What we need is not use a tragedy to not create a police state. Prisons are not hospitals.
I don't want the addicts or people in possession of crack or powder cocaine to get sent to prison, which was the primary goal of the war on drugs and is why I oppose it. I want the dealers sent to prison, and I don't see why it would require a police state to target the dealers. If anything, I think that'd be a much more restrained use of police force than what we've had for decades. I still don't trust Cotton to make that distinction.
