Are Drug Courts the answer?

AP News | The Columbia Daily Tribune: "JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri wastes considerable money by putting nonviolent offenders in prison and mishandling those convicted of drug and alcohol crimes, Chief Justice William Ray Price told state lawmakers Wednesday while urging for a new crime-fighting strategy.

Price told a joint legislative session during his State of the Judiciary speech that Missouri officials have spent years to get tough on crime by putting more people in prison and that the state has spent billions of dollars while crime has not been reduced. He said that requires a new technique that uses special drug and drunken-driving courts and rehabilitation efforts to cut down on recidivism of nonviolent offenders."

They have drug courts in Maryland. They are useful at keeping people out of prison, but I still don't like them. What about a policy of freedom? Why is it so hard to allow adults to make their own decisions, their own mistakes, and to hold them accountable if those mistakes infringe on the rights of others? Drug Courts are just the softer side of prohibition, a nicer fascism. And they still keep the criminal gangs in business.