Should Oregon build a new wave of prisons for a fresh class of prisoners?

Sadly, Oregon already uses the highest percentage of its state budget to lock up criminals and supervise parole of any state. If either Measure 57 or Measure 61 pass - and both will probably pass - this cost will be increased even further. This is at a time when we literally can't afford it: the current financial crisis will most probably cascade into a commercial crisis severely impacting the Oregon economy, resulting in, among other effects, reduced revenue for the state. So this is the worst time to increase the already bloated criminal justice budget.

This is one more misguided and expensive battle in the failed War on Drugs. As long as we blindly follow the current prohibitionist strategy, we are guaranteed to have a steady stream of fresh candidates for our voracious criminal justice system. There will always be some percent of the population that uses drugs, whether they are legal or not. By making drugs illegal we have severely distorted the cost, thus making it more likely that some portion of this drug-using population will turn to property crime or identity theft to pay for their drugs. If we really wanted to minimize property crime and identity theft, we would eliminate the current prohibition on drugs.