Should Drug Offenders Be Allowed Jail Time

Should Convicted drug offenders be allowed the choice of rehab as opposed to jail time? According to the Bureau of prisons, roughly half (48.6%) of prisoners are incarcerated for drug offenses. How would putting these offenders in rehabilitation programs help change the way out system works? Would it help the supposed “war on drugs”? Or just make things worse?
One reason I believe putting non violent drug related offenders in rehabilitation programs would help is because over the past three decades the rates of drug addiction and abuse have shown little to no signs of improving. Throwing someone in a cell for a while isn’t going to help their addiction any. As soon as they get released they’re just going to go right back to how they were living their lives before. Whiles if they were put into rehabilitation programs they would be offered the help they need to recover. Rehab would offer them the treatment and support they need to get their lives back on track, where’s prison usually just makes your life worse.
Another reason I think drug addicts should be offered rehabilitation is because addiction is a disease. After you get so far down that road, you can’t “just quit”. Addiction effects every individual person in different ways. And a lot of the time it doesn’t just have
All we are doing by locking up drug offenders is putting ourselves into bankruptcy and punishing people who just need help. By criminalizing drug abuse, we’re just making it more “exciting” or “dangerous” for people who are willing and able to experiment with drugs. Thus starting the vicious cycle of a life of addiction for so many young people. If these so called “criminals” were reached out to in their time of need and offered a helping hand so many people so desperately look for in today’s world, maybe we could decrease the amount of drug users in the