LEAD is the rare law enforcement program based on harm reduction. The key idea is not to force people into abstinence and punish them if they fail, but rather, to connect them up with services that can help them meet their own goals—like finding a house or a job. By doing so, LEAD cuts arrest and incarceration rates and reduces revolving-door criminal justice costs that typically have had no positive impact on drug use or crime. In Washington State, an average arrest for such low-level crimes leads to a jail term of around three weeks—and the whole arrest, incarceration, and prosecution
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