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> "Annual expenditures of approximately $10 billion on drug incarceration almost pay for themselves through reductions in health care costs and lost productivity attributable to illegal drug use

I'm not sure I understand that. Surely people in prison are even less productive? Or is this counting the massively underpaid prison labour that sometimes happens in the US?

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You're right, but I think they meant they spent that much less on hospital/public health spending.

A huge amount of drug users are very productive and go to work every day, but when they get caught up in the legal system they may lose their job.

Hey - good point! What does that even mean?

I think, from reading that abstract, that they’re claiming it causes drug prices to rise and lower the overall rate of drug use. If they don’t mean that, then I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.

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