What is new, and what makes the problem much worse, is the science behind manufacture. Before, only plants existed and their effects were mild. Now, an alkaloid can be up to 300 times as concentrated as the original drug. The metabolic effect of ingesting drugs, of course, remains fixed. Also new is prohibition - 80 years old in America, with a 220 year history of drugs and alcohol.
People like to blame drugs as the source of ills rather than the underlying problems.
He sees the current laws as unjustified because they have been broken by literally millions of Americans while the penalties awarded for possession and distribution are as severe as murder and rape. Ethan Nadelmann sees drugs as more of a public health, a family and a personal issue than a criminal justice one. The transformation will be evolutionary. Decriminalising drugs would only create a different set of beneficiaries and victims for each change in policy, reckons Nadelmann. There is no perfect solution, only the hope of a global drug policy based on common sense, science, public health and human rights.