No one can understand addiction who has not been addicted. Turning addicts into criminals, ostensibly to keep others from coming into contact with addictive substances, may seem like good sense. But it’s not. Truly it’s not. All political and legal wars on drugs are self-defeating. Ask any senior policeman — in confidence after a couple of glasses of wine. Many will tell you that drugs should be legalized and strictly controlled and that addiction should be treated as a medical, not a legal issue, just as we did in earlier times, very successfully. Demonizing addicts and drug abuse may make us feel better, but can anyone deny that such a policy has failed us all dismally? Perhaps it is time to think the unthinkable.