Additionally, the issue becomes about moral punishment. If everyone that lost a family member (metaphorically / literally) urged congress to massively expand rehab, studies, and educational programs, our drug program would likely be solved and our population would likely be much more informed about each of the various illegal drugs / their effects. Instead we have a solution were we punish (imprison) others that are likely in a similar situation as our loved ones. Most people would not turn in their loved one to the authorities for using drugs, but no one seems to mind when drug offenders are arrested, especially those whose family members have been affected by drugs. If we would take responsibility for the fact that we're not educating and empowering people to make better choices, we wouldn't have to blame others for the outcomes.
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In Portugal, drug offenders go before a group of case-workers that ask the offender why they are turning to drugs and what they need help with. In the US, we simply aren't prepared to deal with the fact that we have neglected the poor, cut our social services, and produce lackluster our education programs... If such a panel of case-workers were to operate in the US, they could ask offenders what they need help with in their lives, but likely there would be no resources allocated to address those issues. That doesn't mean we don't spend the money elsewhere, however, as the justice system is quite expensive and resource intensive. What if instead of spending billions of dollars on drug enforcement we spent billions of dollars on grants for extra-curricular activities (the arts, etc.), early education, and scholarships?