And they do so despite anti-drug laws and tyrannical police methods. The only demonstrable effect of those laws is to enrich criminals, with all the ills that have sprung from that. Anyone undeterred by the risk of wasting their life away and destroying their mind is equally undeterred by the much remoter chance of the much lower penalty of imprisonment.
I’m not advocating prison sentences for end-users, just fines.
It does not make much sense to put drug users on the public dole - which is what prison is.
The enrichment of “criminals” goes all the way to the top - the financial elites of the world, including the British monarchy and US elites; the elites of the major countries, notably Russia and China, as well as European countries.
Those are the biggest criminals at the top; much of the world’s wealth revolves around drugs, both legal and illegal. The illegal piece requires money-laundering on a scale of billions, ergo elite finance can and does take its cut - the business ONLY can exist at their pleasure.
No doubt since this is becoming more and more public, we see a strong push for legalization from the camp of financial elites. We also see strong pushes to regulate internet speech, which could be used to squash any criticism of governments and financial elites who “back” them.
If internet free speech disappears in the West, the precious “drug legalization” push of the unwitting “libertarians” could be at risk, as the elites may prefer to keep drugs illegal as their profits on illegal businesses are not reported for taxation.
Once world government really takes hold, recreational drugs can then be legalized as a means of killing people on scale of millions through a combination of epidemics of all sorts (mental as well as physical conditions) and government-mandated “cures” of drugs, which, under more global governance, would find ubiquitous forced administration worldwide, especially once Americans are disarmed.
If the elites did not completely control governments, they could not run the recreation drug scheme with tax-evaded profits, so they make sure the scheme is big enough and it includes the political ruling families of major nations, so ensure they will not be held accountable in any meaningful way.
Of course, what I am advocating is much broader than drugs; our problems are mostly caused by the elite war criminals at the top of the financial elite, who have for centuries been the masters of governments (notably the major world powers) by embedding their minions within those governments.
Until those elites at the top are purged, we’re still enslaved by them and living in a fantasy world they “manage” for us.