A black and white picture of a dimly lit jail cell from outside of the bars.

The social view of addiction has certainly been dramatically transformed over the past decade, and it really has been for the better. Today, in our public forums and legislation, the big topic of conversation has been whether we should approach addiction with the mindset of treatment or criminalization. Certain people have an outdated notion that criminalization will reduce the amount of drug abuse that exists in the United States. However, the effect that criminalization policies of the 80s and 90s had has done little to curb rising addiction rates. Here are several reasons why taking a path of treatment, instead, will be a far more profitable and humanistic route than criminalization...