The war on drugs as racket
Does this strike you as it struck me, which is to say as wildly inappropriate?
DENVER — The Drug Enforcement Agency is stepping into the political fray to oppose a statewide ballot issue that would legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
In an e-mail to political campaign professionals, an agent named Michael Moore asks for help finding a campaign manager to defeat the measure, which voters will consider in November. If passed, it would allow people 21 and older to have up to 1 ounce of marijuana.
In the e-mail, which was sent from a U.S. Department of Justice account, Moore also writes that the group has $10,000 to launch the campaign. He asks those interested in helping to call him at his DEA office.
It seems to me improper for a federal employee, acting in his official capacity, to solicit political action on a question of state law. But the DEA’s conduct here betrays an essential truth: the war on drugs is as much a jobs program for middle-class bureaucrats as it is anything else. Never mind that the drug war is a costly, abysmal failure. Any relaxation of the drug laws threatens to undermine the “war” and to put the drug warriors out of work.
In any other setting, a self-enhancing scheme that fails to effect its stated purposes while bilking others out of money is not called “war.” It’s called racketeering.
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