While the world has been fixated on the results of the presidential election in the US, less attention has been paid to another outcome of the vote on Tuesday last week: significant steps toward decriminalization of drugs in several US states.

One state — Oregon — is set to abolish criminal penalties for possession of small quantities of all illegal drugs, from heroin to methamphetamine. This approach should be applauded — and adopted far more broadly.

According to 2018 data, about 269 million people around the world use illicit drugs, including 11 million who do so by intravenous injection — a method