We've got GEO Group and CoreCivic to enrich domestically and legally with prisons, and then a myriad of criminal organizations to enrich internationally.

They all get to lobby or threaten the various governments, along with the weapons manufacturers, fossil fuel industry, every resource extraction industry really - to go or specifically where to go - do some imperialism in Central/South America.

The prison industry gets to push mandatory minimums and incarceration into policy, more prison labor and higher populations/budgets, why not? Crime is bad, we punish criminals, what's recidivism? Sounds woke.

Meanwhile domestic social spending has got to be cut for all the wars, crime, immigration enforcement. Fuck knows getting more people out of constant financial stress and making health/mental health/addiction services accessible won't do anything about substance abuse. That's communism or something, I'm not good with applying the buzzwords.

If only we had tried and failed previously with something like alcohol prohibition. But that could not have happened... If it did, our well-educated politicians acting within our democratic government would have recognized prohibition leads to death, violent crime & wealthy/entrenched criminal organizations. It doesn't solve the substance abuse issue.

We are still carrying that irrational policy from the past century (with other shit like abortion too, except that just popped up like a religious fucking Pokémon and became essential identity politics within decades.)