"I often wonder if the prohibition of drugs is orchestrated by the criminals themselves, because they are the ones who profit the greatest from it. Seems obvious to me."
Too right Jessica, you only have to look at American prohibition of alcohol and its outcomes to see the stupidity.
"But although drinking liquor was now prohibited by law, there was absolutely no need for abstinence. Though all the Saloons disappeared, shortly after the Amendment came into force new illegal drinking outlets opened throughout the whole country and they overtook the number of pre-Volstead saloons. By 1925 there were, for instance, at least 15,000 "blind pigs" in Detroit, and by the end of the 1920s at least 32,000 "speakeasies" in New York and countless stores sold liquor as a sideline to get an additional income. The people living on country-side concocted their own alcoholic beverages, so called moonshine. The rich had liquor delivered to their homes and the poor drank beer which was close to water, or spirits which were close to poison. Prohibition simply made the consumption of alcohol more of a challenge and more expensive."
Alcohol distribution passed into the hands of the criminal syndicates and venal bureaucrats, whilst there was no longer any tax collection from its sale. Crime flourished just as we have seen in the current "war on drugs". The privately run American prison system has also become dependent on much of its growth from incarcerated possessors of illegal substances with a high percentage of inmates there as a result of drug use.
Drug addicts should be treated, not incarcerated in the for profit prison system and marijuana should be distributed by the government with associated tax collection. Marijuana use causes far less mayhem than alcohol within society.
