Don't lose site of the fact that hundreds of thousands of Americans are making a living off drugs being illegal.
Look at all these people...
The police departments could be renamed the drug and medication enforcement departments.
Look at the tens of thousands of lawyers, court reporters, judges, jailers, corrections, parole agents, thousands in probation departments....
They're all making a living off drugs being illegal.
It's a huge industry in America....And a joke.
It's bigger than all of us.
While the social libertarians and social conservatives battle it out over legalizing/decriminalizing drug use, government has figured out a way to profit from the drug issue either way it goes.
Currently, they've got the War on Drugs that allows them to expand, support an enormous bureaucracy of fat cats, with some honest and decent soldiers on the front lines risking and losing their lives just to support the jobs of the bureaucrats. Yet it's a war that can never really be won and the politicians and bureaucrats know that. But the politicians and bureaucrats will keep asking for more money and resources to fight it so that they can keep "the game" going as long as possible.
Think about it: if a government bureaucracy ever actually solved a problem -- like illegal drug use -- there would be no reason for that government program's continued existence. So why would government bureaucrats cut their own throat and send themselves to the unemployment line by actually succeeding at their mandate? They wouldn't and they won't-- ever. They are just keeping the game going as long as they can, until enough of us agree that the jig is up, and we say, "We know what you are doing and are sick of you feeding us BS & stealing our money!"
When that day comes, politicians and bureaucrats already have a back-up plan: "Legalize and Tax Drugs" -- supposedly to "provide treatment plans for addicts" but it is really to perpetuate their old bureaucracy and feed recycled fat cats now running nationwide "drug treatment facilities", with big Pharma supplying the support meds for "treatment".
Proponents of reduced drug penalties will be so happy with the new legalization that they will put up with the taxation on it, considering the legislation "a win" for their side. But it won't be a "win", because the same people who once outlawed it, have now successfully extorted money from you just to leave you alone. And if they want more money, they will gripe about how "current taxation isn't enough to cover all the necessary treatment". They will raise the taxes as high as possible on those who buy drugs until they have squeezed the last drop of blood out of that stone.
Then they will start demanding more taxes from ordinary citizen non-drug buyers to "cover treatment". Then non-drug buyers will eventually get fed up and will demand a reinstatement of "the War on Drugs".
And the same recycled game, with the same major players, will start all over again!
“Don’t lose site of the fact that hundreds of thousands of Americans are making a living off drugs being illegal. “
You are right, and I am certain that this has a lot to do with why these policies will never be examined. At least not until we have a true governmental reform.