Drug Decriminilization

I suppose that just by posting this I'll be accused of being pro-drugs. I take a lot of them, but they are all legal because prescribed by a doctor for me. I'm highly concerned about the issue of illegal drugs, however, because of the frightful toll the drug war is having in this country. I've posted before about the numbers of Americans in prison, with blacks and Hispanics being a higher percentage by far than their percentage of the population. Moreover there are the horrors going on in Mexico and Columbia caused by the drug lords who are satisfying the unhealthy demand of Americans for these drugs. At this point I think the situation is so bad we need to consider alternatives to our current policy, which has been in place for so many years and had such bad results. First I think we should get rid of mandatory minimum sentences, and stop sending people to jail for minor non-violent drug-related offenses. But I think we should consider decriminalization of at least some drugs. This post by Glen Greenwald talks about the recent success in Portugal of drug decriminalization.