That's actually brilliant in an odd way.
Legalize drugs and open up clinical dispensaries.
Spend 20~? Billion on education and addiction treatment.
Watch healthcare, addiction, crime and homelessness plummet.
Watch all drug use decrease and the cartels either forced to go legal or lose one of the largest markets.
You forgot the biggie: government makes money off the excise tax they place on the newly legalized drugs. Normally I'm against taxes but I think I would be ok with an excise tax on recreational drugs as long as the profits are used to fund the clinics and any related medical bills. Then the addicts are essentially funding their own treatment when they overdose and since it's in a clinic there are trained medical professionals to render treatment immediately.
Precisely. Singapore made this exact radical step like 15 years ago and has seen nothing but benefits (for the most part). A lot of addicts would love to kick their habit, but dont have the money or resources to seek treatment.
Kick like 2 billion into mental health services, and community outreach programs and you'll see a lot of social issues diminish.
Not to mention the reduction of law enforcement and prisons.
All of this could be accomplished for less than the total wall proposed amount.*
*reality is unpredictable and unforeseen variables dont exist in a perfect world. Actuality may not coincide with expectations.
Well if he had any guts he could just push to legalize drugs and then the cartels lose too.