OP did not mention anything about legal drugs. Id rather it be preachy and inform him and others that it is not difficult to get a prescription for Adderall if you have ADD symptoms.
(That being said, maybe this need for "cognitive enhancement" really does arise from an underlying medical condition like ADD. A sane legal system would in my opinion have, instead of jailing, sent this person to a doctor to figure this out.)
The idea of cognitive enhancement is mostly fake. If you're ADD, ADD medication helps, but if you're baseline it doesn't. Get some sleep and go running.
Why has US society adopted this meme that felony possession of, say, cocaine at age 25 should brand you unhireable for much of your professional life?
Obviously, your examples of Portugal and the Netherlands show that there is no overarching societal need for this branding.
It's so fucked how we have this illusion of Drugs being evil pounded into our head from an early age. When they're not really that big of a deal. Literally like 90% of the country does drugs. Some of the most successful people do Cocaine. Sorry...ALL of the most successful people do it.
You got fucked for being poor essentially OP.
The sick sick part is...it's all exploiting the vulnerable for money. Fines, Salaries, Budgets, Grants for Prisons..
This is all well explored by numerous journalists. I'm not treading any new ground here in my thoughts here though.
Sorry you got trapped in the Murican B.S. O.P.