> That thought doesn't really capture the reason. It applies in some circumstances but not this one. By 'this circumstance' do you mean the USA, or why drug de

> That thought doesn't really capture the reason. It applies in some circumstances but not this one. By 'this circumstance' do you mean the USA, or why drug decriminalisation isn't tried elsewhere? If the former, consider this fun fact from Wikipedia [1] "At the beginning of 2008, more than 1 in 100 adults in the United States were in prison or jail. Total US incarceration peaked in 2008. Total correctional population (prison, jail, probation, parole) peaked in 2007. If all prisoners are counted (including juvenile, territorial, ICE, Indian country, and military), then in 2008 the US had around 24.7% of the world's 9.8 million prisoners." And this one from the same page: "The number of incarcerated drug offenders has increased twelvefold since 1980. In 2000, 22 percent of those in federal and state prisons were convicted on drug charges." I believe state numbers are a bit fuzzy, but at a federal level in 2016 it was around 75% of inmates were in private facilities. So, long story short, there's a lot of wealthy people keen on keeping things as they are -- the fact that it's an easy political sell to the average not-terribly-well-informed voter is a bonus. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_St...