(Source) As mass incarceration continues to plague the United States criminal justice system, improved technology and evidence-gathering techniques seek to identify and exonerate the wrongfully convicted. Those accused of a crime may be wrongfully convicted for a variety of reasons such as eyewitness misidentifications, coerced false confessions, faulty forensics science, incompetent public defenders, and suppression
In light of the opioid crisis facing the nation today, lawmakers are focusing less on harsh federal sentences, and more on research into the public health crisis. Since the government is looking at opioid drug users with more compassion and less contempt, there is a perfect opportunity for lawmakers to make offenders of all drugs an offense that calls for treatment instead of prison time.