The core disagreement, however, is this. Put them in jail. That is, they committed no other crime, they just had drugs. With draconian mandatory minimum sentences, the prisons are so filled with these sorts of prisoners that there is no room for the robbers or even the murderers and rapists. If there were no drug laws, there would be no need for the cop mentality that they have to be arrested.
Drug laws serve no other purpose.
They do not stop crime, but in fact creates a whole new class of crime. Not only that, but they interfere with the legitimate enforcement of actual criminal law. What we mean by that is, actual crime is where someone else is harmed. No one is harmed when I smoke a joint. As the last letter writer points out, it is to make demagogues from cops, prison officials and politicians as well as therapists without enough skills to make it in the job marketplace without forced therapy.