My buddy Tim aka MeteorBlades, eloquently points out that there are some useful consequences from the War on Some drugs. Think of the jobs!
(DailyKos) –Not a policy of total failure, to be sure. It has helped create a private prison industry that generates a lot of jobs, albeit lower-paid ones than prison employees make in the public sector.
It’s given a lot of lawyers work they wouldn’t have otherwise had and given idle prosecutors something to do instead of hunt down white-collar frauds and scam artists.
It’s put money in the pockets of drug-testing companies and padded the budgets of local police forces who get a percentage of the take when drug money and property bought with drug money is confiscated.
And it’s boosted the economies of certain regions like the counties of northern California’s marijuana belt by keeping the price high for a weed that anybody with a little experience can successfully cultivate in just about any climate but the Arctic.
It’s an ill wind…
… and it smells kinda skunky.
As an American citizen I have never understood how so many of my peers support the “war on drugs.” Just like alcohol and tobacco abuse, I do not know why we do not treat people who abuse other substances as a public health problem instead of a criminal one. The amount of money that would be saved if we did not incarcerate so many people has to far outweigh any money that the police get from drug related property seizure. (I would be interested to see whether or not my assertion is borne out by the data though)
And if we are going to be pedantic and talk about jobs, treating substance dependence as a public health problem also opens up the door for more jobs in the health sector and elsewhere.