Editor, Gazette-Journal:

If “Just Say No” isn’t working, what does?

Multiple independent analyses show that diverting arrestees away from human storage units with corrections officers, into programs that focus on treatment and life skills reduces drug recidivism and other crimes by as much as 40 percent.

Virginia should move its money from incarceration and allocate it towards drug courts. Then we should adopt an approach that treats drug use as a public health problem. We cannot arrest our way out of this problem. It’s obvious that society cannot cure addiction through incarceration.

Addiction is a disease of the brain, not a moral failing. Addiction hijacks the brain’s neural pathways, leading people to pursue a behavior of drug despite the consequences. On average, 91 Americans die each day from opioid overdoses. This epidemic is staggering. A different approach is needed.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is stuck on returning the U.S. to the draconi...