The war on drugs has been around since the 1930s; there have been MANY crops of crappy old people keeping it going. The police constitute a concentrated interes

The war on drugs has been around since the 1930s; there have been MANY crops of crappy old people keeping it going. The police constitute a concentrated interest group in favor of the power they get from the various Wars so the policy survives for much the same reason crop subsidies survive. Any policy that bestows concentrated benefits to a small group and widely distributes costs to everyone else is hard to stop once it gets started.