High Society: U.S. drug policy a total failure, say users and experts

"Meanwhile, people are getting run over by the system for small-time dealing or using, the drug lords keep getting richer, the wheels of justice keep grinding away," he said. "And the general public just keeps getting more scared and just more willing to pay another $69 billion a year to feel better," he said. "This is the very definition of a failed public policy. And doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome is the very definition of madness."

Judges hearing drug cases say they are as overwhelmed as the poor souls standing before their benches. Users say most of the time they're as lost and more ashamed of themselves than any of their few remaining loved ones and family members could be.

Drug counselors say despite their best efforts, users are as likely to quit on their own because they've just gotten fed up with the rigmarole of getting drugs, getting caught and getting out as they are from therapy.

And most people — 97 percent — who use cocaine and heroin say they wouldn't if they were legalized, Cole said.

"What we're left with is a system that runs over people who can't afford a good lawyer," he said. "It treats the affluent anesthesiologist who gets caught with his controlled substance huffing for fun a lot harsher than the poor guy caught for the same thing."

Beyond crazy

"We passed crazy a while ago," said a 41-year-old father in Box Elder County who was recently reunited with his two children after spending 12 years in and out of jail and prison for being caught in 1997 with two hits of LSD.

"It's complete looney-tunes out there," he told the Deseret News last month. "What in the world are we trying to do? Whatever it is, it ain't helping. That much I know for sure."

He said he got mixed up with drugs while in high school. He is quick to point out he doesn't blame a rough childhood or abusive foster parents, "but I knew I was different and had to do what I could to make other kids like me." To that end, buying them candy in grade school evolved into marijuana in high school.

"I had a lot of pain I was carrying around, and the drugs helped me forget that," he said during a break from playing the video game "Rock Band" with his son. His first jail stint was at 16 when he was arrested with marijuana paraphernalia in his car.

"What I'd like people to know is I went to jail as a drug user and I came out a criminal," he said. "It's almost like that's what they've decided you are and what they expect you to be. And honestly, that's how you start to convince yourself you are just some kind of super loser who's never going to get right no matter how hard you try to live by their program."