There is a certain group of people who will never grasp this because they are so far removed from the realities of criminality. We treat certain offenses as less serious out of an ignorance of the nature of these crimes. These crimes should be treated much more seriously, thus allowing us to keep them in prison longer, preferably until they reach the age when recidivism rates plummet to about zero. Among those crimes are drug offenses. Most everything you know about drug convictions and prison is incorrect, but it's nearly a lost cause trying to show people this based on actual data about who makes up our prison population. Overwhelmingly, the people in prison for drug offenses are big or repeat dealers and repeat abusers. The proverbial marijuana user is not the person sitting in our prisons. The people who are sitting in our prisons for drug offenses are often gang members and dealers engaged in an enterprise that is based upon violence. Furthermore, drug abusers, who keep these violent people in business, are often violent people, in large part due to the mind-altering substances they use. I'm not saying that we should lock people up based upon what I think they will do, I'm saying that we should lock them up longer because of what they have done and because that demonstrated behavior poses dangerous risks to the general public.