And don't forget Sean Bell, unfortunate recipient of 50 NYPD issued hollow points from 5 unidentified officers, was an alleged drug dealer. The most dangerous police work in which the most people get killed, both cops and suspects, is narcotics.

If we could just stop the madness and replace prohibition with its tremendous economic and even greater social costs with regulation based on rational policy formulated by scientists not district attorneys or evangelists, a tremendous burden would be lifted from all of us. Mental health issues would be addressed not through summary incarceration for as many offenders as police can grab, photograph, fingerprint, obtain DNA samples from and release the next day when they're damn good and ready. A more scientific and treatment based approach (we could not have a more punitive approach as we are the world's drug punishment leader), would reduce the gathering of genetic data on suspected drug users in favor of strict federal medical privacy laws for those seeking treatment.

We can expect opposition from justice.

One approach that may be worth investigating is to prohibit the arrest for drug possession of any person under regular treatment for an addiction to the drug. Better yet, just have the government supply your regular habit (as proved by shooting it in front of a government nurse) safely with no risk of persecution for carrying drugs dispensed by a government regulated pharmacy.

Thousands if not millions of jobs would be eliminated. We might encounter some resistance.

However, an approach of using doctors and pharmacies to regulate dispensing of drugs would fit in neatly with the FDA's approach to dispensing the many controlled substances and legal mind altering drugs found on the top shelf
of our medicine cabinets.