I think a large factor in why drugs won't be legalized anytime soon is because there are thousands of jobs that depend on keeping drugs illegal... prisons,lawyers,cops,probation and drug testing, etc, the criminal justice system feeds on the drug money. One other thing, The Alcoholic Beverage Industry spends millions of dollars on lobbying the law makers to keep their product the only legal drug. We need to try something new, what we are doing now is not working, just my 2 cents.
NNY, Exactly!
In addition, the prison system is being rapidly privatized and the corporations that own this prisons have a vested interest in keeping them filled to capacity to maximize profit.
Check this out, Michele Leonhart, the current head of the DEA, is still arguing dated, disproved theories about marijuana.
This is the idiot that's running our D.E.A.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwaXsQY6Eghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFC2IZe04EYFor Christ sake, marijuana (Or Hemp as it's properly named) is a weed that grows wild. Not much different from the apples growing on the tree in my backyard. All this "To do" about a plant is fucking ridiculous.
