By venting our rage and hatred, we make things worse. We make people worse. We take many confused, mostly selfish young men and women, and we create bitter, violent career criminals out of them. We must also bear in mind that many of the greatest saints and sages of all religions were once criminals, drunkards, prostitutes and even killers. St. Paul was once Saul of Tarsus, a vicious persecutor and killer of Christians.
Religious history is filled with such redeemed, transformed sages.
As we give up our belief in redemption and transformation, we are crossing another line, one of narrow-mindedness, which will render us poorer indeed. Some of the potential sages and activists of our times may be languishing in prison cells right now. We must seek to maximize rather than destroy such potential. Drugs Are a Public Health Problem, Not A Criminal Justice Problem Nonviolent drug addicts are clogging our nation's prisons. All this incarceration is doing nothing to solve the drug problem.