Addiction Is the Disease of Desire

As overdose deaths soar to record numbers—with over 100,000 in each of the past two years—American attitudes about addiction spiral deeper into delusion. Lawmakers on both the left and the right, the mainstream media, and the majority of the population now embrace decriminalization. And yet, as Jim Hinch is the latest to show, the case for normalizing drugs is bogus. “Harm reduction” and decriminalization do not reduce overdoses but increase them. Treatment isn’t the alternative to law enforcement; successful treatment typically requires law enforcement. Nor will stopping the prosecution of drug possession solve our prison problem; less than four percent of prisoners are incarcerated for possession.