In the United States, it is illegal to knowingly have illegal drugs in your possession. If you are in a friend’s automobile, and the police find drugs inside, you will be arrested as well as your friend, even if these are not your drugs. If you are staying in a house with some friends, and the police come with a search warrant, search the house, and find drugs, even though you are in another’s home you will more than likely be arrested for drug possession. For these reasons, and others similar to them, drug possession is a growing problem among people from all walks of life. Drug possession laws are quite harsh, and if it is thought that a person has illegal drugs in order to distribute them, then the penalty for possession will be much worse. These laws aim to reduce the number of drugs that people are taking, as well as cut down on the number of crimes that happen because someone was using drugs. Sadly, these laws have not had the effect that the people who proposed them had hoped.