Skip to main content

Six Groups Who Benefit From the Drug War

Submitted by smorgan on
An awesome presentation from Judge Jim Gray. He really nails a lot of important points in a few short minutes:

I will make one comment on Judge Gray's discussion here with regards to his statement that politicians are benefiting from the war on drugs. This has certainly been true in the past, but we're witnessing a palpable shift in the way these issues are approached in mainstream politics.

The drug war has become so deeply unpopular among a sizable segment of the population that the White House felt it necessary to publicly reject the "war" metaphor. It was a shrewd and arguably disingenuous political maneuver, but it illustrates vividly how far removed we are from the days when politicians went out of their way to impress the public with tough lock 'em up rhetoric. You don't hear many mainstream politicians bragging about their drug war credentials these days. Heck, Obama's most popular drug policy decision since taking office was his effort to curtail DEA raids in medical marijuana states.

We need to stop selling the idea that supporting the drug war is good for politicians. We don't want them thinking that, and it isn’t really even true anymore.

Add new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.