On the 50th anniversary of the War on Drugs, which began under President Richard Nixon, experts are looking back on the effort and assessing the impact—concluding that locking up individuals struggling with drug addiction was largely ineffective. As the nation continues to reel from multiple drug crises—including a record 90,000 drug overdoses last year—they say the war on drugs simply didn’t work, noting that the response to drugs should be handled by doctors and therapists, not cops and prison guards. Today, roughly 20.3 million people have a substance use disorder and nearly half of the inmates in federal prisons are held on drug charges. Meanwhile, America’s streets are flooded with more potent drugs than every before, such as meth and the synthetic opioid fentanyl, as well as high-potency marijuana concentrates. Instead of punishing drug users, many states now advocate decriminalizing all drugs, which would have to be accompanied by mandatory treatment to have the most impact. Meanwhile, a new study shows the impact of marijuana legalization: first-time cannabis use surged last year among women and Gen Z consumers. The Brightfield Group study found that 50 percent of new cannabis customers indulged in the drug five or more days per while 22 percent of are using multiple times per day. Female users skew younger and are heavier users than men, the report concluded, and nearly one-quarter of users were Gen Z (born after 1997). And finally, as the Connecticut legislature debates marijuana legalization, a Colorado lawyer who helped to write that state’s law has warned lawmakers about the consequences, including harming children. The lawyer, Robert Corry, said legalization would create another industry like Big Tobacco that targets children and leads to abuse. He also called for tighter regulation and limits on the high levels of intoxicating component of pot, THC, which in Colorado has led to an alarming increase in the number of psychotic episodes among younger users. Colorado recently passed a revised legalization law that includes a crack down on THC levels to curb youth misuse.