Our country needs more effective, humane, and justly enforced anti-drug policies. But legalizing the drugs that ruin people’s lives is not the answer. Pope Francis delivered precisely this message last Friday:

Let me state this in the clearest terms possible: the problem of drug use is not solved with drugs! Drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise. To think that harm can be reduced by permitting drug addicts to use narcotics in no way resolves the problem. Attempts, however limited, to legalize so-called “recreational drugs”, are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the desired effects. Substitute drugs are not an adequate therapy but rather a veiled means of surrendering to the phenomenon. Here I would reaffirm what I have stated on another occasion: No to every type of drug use. It is as simple as that. No to any kind of drug use (cf. General Audience, 7 May 2014).

But to say this “no”, one has to say “yes” to life, “yes” to love, “yes” to others, “yes” to education, “yes” to greater job opportunities. If we say “yes” to all these things, there will be no room for illicit drugs, for alcohol abuse, for other forms of addiction.

In a throwaway culture, the answer is not to make drug use easier, but to effectively deter illicit drug use (across socioeconomic lines) and to help those ensnared by addiction to break free. And, as Pope Francis said, it is critical to address the underlying causes of drug use, including the lack of education and economic opportunity that can engender hopelessness and despair. The answer is not increased libertarianism, but a stronger commitment to the common good.

Those on the Right who want to legalize drugs in order to cut government spending on the enforcement of drug laws and those on the Left who are tempted to surrender to the decadence and nihilism of the moment would be wise to heed Pope Francis’ advice.