People in this thread are really downplaying an illegal drugs like cocaine? Are you people fucking kidding me with this shit?
Cocaine and illegal drugs in general fucking ruin lives and not just the lives of those using them. This isn't up to debate.
At least to clarify my own stance on this, I'm very aware of the damage they do. That's why I don't support a criminal model. Because how does just throwing these people in jail help fix their lives at all? That doesn't make much sense.
What should be done when it comes to drugs is a model such as Portugal's, where drugs are illegal but decriminalized and the focus is purely on a medical model to get those addicted to them the help they need and doing what we can to like get at the root causes of why they use those drugs to begin with and help them stop their use of such products and actually improve their lives, versus throwing them in jail, which is just ruining their lives in a different way. The focus should be on helping them and stemming use of the drug and just viewing it through such a medical/rehabilitative lens, not a punitive model.
And of course, note, this goes for personal drug use. Drug dealers are naturally an entirely different subject, as that does cause lots of suffering, and that's something that does deserve punishment, especially when it's done in large and extravagant amounts. But simple use of drugs, even ones like cocaine? That in of itself is a nonviolent offense and criminalizing that does nothing to actually improve the lives of those affected by the drugs or the lives of their families and loved ones, and stuff like the war on drugs in the United States and the US's prison population being so high, with this going on for decades at this point with the war on drugs no closer to "success" speaks to the failure of that approach, if nothing else does (and this is without even touching on subjects such as the racial discrepancies in enforcement of the war on drugs and how messed up that is and how many lives that ruins). From the best of my understanding, Portugal has had more success with its model in the time its been active than the US has, and when you put all of that together, I just can't be alright with punishing users in that kind of way and don't get the benefits of that approach, as compared to the many, many downsides.
