"So there are two possibilities: Either those conducting the Drug War are lunatics, or they have another purpose."
What's more, large corporations in the US are py directly involve in selling dangerous narcotics around the world, it's called to tobacco and it's the most lethal drug sold in the world.
It's interesting, Chomsky points out that we in the US feel entitled to send helicopters to spray coca crops and troops into Colombia to burn coca crops etc. Well hard drugs kill not even 1% of the amount of people tobacco kills, so what if China were to send helicopters and troops to destroy tobacco plantations in Virginia? Would that be acceptable?
Nearly a hundred comments and this seems to be the only reference to this major facet of the drug "war". It's amazing how short-term and steered "our" attention span is.
And of course now we've got a new instance of the familiar pattern - a Heroin epidemic a decade after beginning colonization of Afghanistan...
One friend got off with only a warning for having 10 ounces of high-grade weed, which were then "confiscated". Another, who has been selling cocaine since his mid-teens, begrudgingly gives out 8-balls to a few cops that recognize his cars and pull him over at any opportunity.
So of course many people don't suspect bad intentions here, maybe even many politicians or organizations which are on the receiving end of a donation, which originated from drug money.
Of course there are some other reasons too, but considering the amount of stupidity which is necessary to really believe that the "war on drugs" can be won, it's quite unlikely that there isn't lots of active lobbying involved to let the war continue as long as possible.
In the end, it's just a very profitable business and the people involved aren't stupid and have lots of money at their disposal. So why shouldn't they do it?