LEO salaries,
DA Salaries,
Judges Salaries,
Court reporters Salaries,
Administrative Salaries,
Equipment and the jobs created to manufacture, sell and maintain this equipment.
Education programs (Salaries)
Rehab programs (Salaries)
Office supplies and the jobs created to manufacture and sell these supplies.
Training for LEO (salaries)
Tell me again how this "Trillion" dollars was wasted?
lol
It's supposed to be a 'war on drugs'...not an industry in and of itself for the benefit of all of the entities you just listed.
All government spending is an industry and those listed are not "Entities" they are American Citizens doing a Job, a job they feel needs doing.
"Entities", give me a freeken brake.
That is all money given to the government to manage and spend. It was taxed from productive citizens who could have otherwise spent it on consumer goods - providing jobs to non-government workers, invested it or done any number of things with it.
If taking money from taxpayers and giving it to the government to spend is a good idea then it is surely a better idea to take ALL of the taxpayers' money, 100% of it, and give it to the government to fund the programs they think should be funded.
Plus, and this is the part I really like - the money earned from the sale of illegal drugs goes into the hands of the most unscrupulous and violent segment of our society. Just like prohibition made millionaires of the most vicious criminals in society, illegal drug sales are pouring billions of dollars into the hands of the same kind of people.
I may have missed it but I can't really recall the last time I heard of a shootout between the goons of Coors and Anheuser Busch, or New Belgium Brewing leaving the heads of Sierra Nevada Brewery employees lying on public squares. Of course those driveby shootings between R. J. Reynolds and Ligget and Myers, leaving scores of innocent bystanders dead in their wake, are a national tragedy.
Drugs are bad. Yeah, most people get that. And no matter how many hypocrites love to say "my drug is okay because I'm a good guy and responsible guy - but other people's drugs are bad because they're all scum sucking losers" - drugs are drugs are drugs and a drug user is a drug user and a drug abuser is a drug abuser.
Drugs and drug abuse have been with mankind since some Neanderthal learned to eat fermented berries. You'll never, ever, ever, stop some people from taking some substance to change their mood or their brain chemistry, even under penalty of death.
But trying to solve the problem of drug abuse - nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, oxycontin or anything else - with the hammer of law enforcement did
NOT work for alcohol and it is NOT working for any other drug.
Legalizing anything will obviously create more "regulations", if driving was illegal we wouldn't need the DMV and we'd save millions on stop signs. But when was the last time anyone saw a SWAT raid on the local 7-11 to check that their beer license was up to date? I know those MRAP's in front of every Piggly Wiggly and those dynamic entries on aisle 6 are a constant annoyance to me.
All I am saying is what we have is not working. After billions of taxpayer dollars spent, after countless man-years in prisons aka crime college, drugs are still plentiful, apparently the quality and potency of some of them are getting stronger and stronger and apparently anyone can get them. This particular war is
lost; but instead of giving up, let's try to find another strategy besides criminal penalties and an escalating arms race between police and drug dealers.
Or, if what we have is working like a charm then I'll still raise my anti-hypocrisy cry in the wilderness that if what we have for one drug is good then it is good for ALL drugs.
