it's been pretty apparent to me for some time now that "the war on drugs" is actually a mechanism to drive _up_ the price of street drugs, and i would go so far

it's been pretty apparent to me for some time now that "the war on drugs" is actually a mechanism to drive _up_ the price of street drugs, and i would go so far as to claim this is done intentionally. without ridiculously stiff penalties for drug crimes, the sky-high premium placed on the drugs themselves would be unreasonable. a higher price on street drugs leads to a similar near-linear relationship with the amount of USD exported outside the US. in this way "the war on drugs" is actually a mechanism to increase demand and circulation of the USD. softening the penalties for drug "crimes" makes a lot of sense, just look at portugal and other areas that have decriminalized/legalized possession of small amounts of drugs. i hope the US continues along the current vector of softening its approach with drug "crimes".