Rehabilitate or punish: How should society treat criminals?

When the young go to prison, they are impressionable and still learning. If there is no organized method, learning will be sought by whatever means. The brain is programmed to constantly take new information and organize it, make it fit into the changing landscape.
http://www.helium.com/items/2260669-rehabilitation-or-punishment

To legalize or to not legalize: Should marijuana be legalized?

The anti-drug stance of the United States costs big bucks.  And the underground economy brings in big bucks, with no tax liability at all.  It is difficult to sympathize with a country that spends so very much on a drug war that was obviously lost long ago, and one whose economy is upside down.  Not only is this anti-drug money being spent in huge amounts, year after year, also huge amounts of taxes are not being collected or paid out on the marijuana industry alone. And yet the marijuana industry is only a small portion of the total underground economy, millions as opposed to billions.
http://www.helium.com/items/2260721-legalize-marijuana

Should medical marijuana be legalized?

Sixteen out of fifty states plus the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. It is a progressive notion, at once frightening and witchy. Nonetheless, the feds keep making raids and laying down the law, the federal law. Law is a precious thing, full of rights and honor, whether lacking in common sense or not.  
http://www.helium.com/items/2262271-should-medical-marijuana-be-legalized

What improvements are needed in today's prisons?

It would seem the worst of the worst go to prison, but such is not the case. Statistically, the United States locks up not only poor people, but a great many drug offenders. In 2005 there were two million inmates in the United States; of these two million, 25 percent were convicted on drug related charges. Drugwarfacts.org states that from 1990 to 2010 in federal prisons, drug convictions accounted for very close to half of all convictions. They state also that the amount of federal prisoners grew from 57,000 to 190,000 during this same time period.
http://www.helium.com/items/2276592-improvement-in-todays-prisons