“As the nation debates the war on drugs, Baltimore has already begun to redraw the battle lines.
“Baltimore police have shifted the department’s strategy to focus more on large-scale, violent players in the drug trade and less on addicts committing lesser offenses.
“The result on the street: Drug arrests dropped by nearly 50 percent last year, according to a data analysis by The Baltimore Sun. Police didn’t just arrest fewer people for marijuana — small amounts of which were decriminalized in 2014 — but for other illicit drugs, including heroin and cocaine, and for crimes ranging from possession to distribution.”