alt Hacker NewsGovernments have spent considerable effort on it, but it's tough to ban something as popular as tobacco or alcohol.
Voters tend to get what they want, and a sizeable fraction of voters smoke or drink.
Governments have spent considerable effort on it, but it's tough to ban something as popular as tobacco or alcohol.
Voters tend to get what they want, and a sizeable fraction of voters smoke or drink.
> Voters tend to get what they want
I wish that was true. In the case of tobacco and alcohol, there's enough monied interests to ensure it would never be illegal.
So this defines the classic simple argument about the issue: alcohol and tobacco are dangerous and other than a weird House episode, have no medical value, and yet society has decided that some dangerous drugs are ok, because the right people are making money from it.
Propaganda has effectively sold the War on Drugs as "protecting people", but it's never been about that -- it's about enabling tools of oppression.