I think the important point about the idea that this solves anything--that is, sending people to jail--is that it is manifestly not so. It does not work; that's true. But I think Mr. Bagnell's question about the problem and how we solve the problem.... What do we do to solve the problem? The fact is, we're trying to solve a problem that isn't, in the terms put by both of you, solvable. The fact is, human beings have been using psychoactive substances since the beginning of time, and they will continue to. Some will use them responsibly and others will not. It doesn't matter what the substance is.
The advent of the chemistry and other things over the last hundred years has certainly made this huge cornucopia, if you put it that way, of drugs available. By putting people in jail, you're simply inviting them to spend time in a hothouse where they can come out fully prepared to lead a much more efficient life of crime. And you only put them in there because they happened to have been caught up in this artificial net you've created.
That's my answer to that.