A drug dealer was sentenced to ten years and eleven months in prison for selling Fentany-laced oxycodone pills that led the famed rapper Mac Miller to overdose and die. Apart from establishing that he was the dealer in the transaction that eventually resulted in the rapper's death, prosecutors established that he continued to distribute oxycodone pills for over a year after the rapper's death, despite knowing there was a fentanyl problem and overdoses occurring.

In the United States, we are seeing a major drug epidemic that has gone mostly ignored. Thousands of mothers have lost sons, and it seems as if no matter how many drug dealers are prosecuted, their place is ultimately filled by another. This seemingly unending crisis will continue indefinitely unless we address and invest more money and resources in resolving the underlying issue of why individuals use these substances in the first place. Like any other industry, growing numbers of drug dealers enter the business because it is extremely profitable to do so. While our government has spent significantly more money and resources tracking down and prosecuting drug dealers, distributors, and users, the problem would be more effectively resolved by making the drug business unprofitable.

Given that the war on drugs has lasted decades and seems to have no end in sight, we should pursue rehabilitation rather than criminalization if we ever want to see an end to the damage caused by drugs in our society.