Hope or Punishment in Drug Policy?

I grew up in a neighborhood where it was much more likely for me to grow to be a drug dealer than an engineer.  My brother went down another road.  My children have had their own struggles with drugs.  Here is the essence of what a lifetime of living among users has taught me about the difference of those that succumb and those that succeed on their journey through the valley of drugs that divides our country today.   I have watched our punitive approach to drugs fail for sixty years;  we need to come with a Plan B that at its core is designed to give addicts hope.  That is not easy in its own right, but the change in focus will save thousands of lives.