“In March, the commander in chief of the War on Drugs stood in front of a crowd of policymakers, advocates and recovering addicts to declare that America has been doing it wrong.

“Speaking at the National Prescription Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta – focused on an overdose epidemic now killing some 30,000 Americans a year – President Barack Obama declared, ‘For too long we have viewed the problem of drug abuse … through the lens of the criminal justice system,’ creating grave costs: ‘We end up with jails full of folks who can’t function when they get out. We end up with people’s lives being shattered.'”