Thanks for the education RT76. So you think they make more off keeping people in prison than selling it legally and saving on all the extra time and money trying to find it? Extra cops, special squads, choppers, etc... Seems like it would be more profitable the other way. If they were to legalize it maybe philip moris or someone in the tobacco industry would sell it and give Hali a cut.
The problem is that prohibition is not profitable for 'we the people.' Those extra choppers, special squads, big f'n guns to go after passive growers, dealers and users, and of course prison cells, food, clothes etc all get paid for by 'we the people.' All of those things being bought by 'we the people' is pure unadulterated profit for those who MAKE the laws. In this case the Cheney/Bush regime who own a massive number of shares in companies like Haliburten and Wackenhut to name a few.
Prohibition has made billions of people pay a very select few out of our tax dollar. To make things even more infuriating a substantial portion of the drugs that are getting people jailed for were once property of the US government. If you remeber (or heard of) the Iran Contra scandal back in the 80's, that entire debacle that was plastered all over the media was about Oliver North and his troops participating in a 'Drugs for Guns' trade off with people who were and still are our enemies. They would supply top quality US made guns to our enemies in trade for a combination of information and drugs (specifically cocain and heroin.) They would then smuggle the drugs back to the US in military containers that are exempt from customs searches and put it on the streets of the US for a profit. Later when people got busted with these drugs they profited AGAIN from jailing the people they sold the drugs to, again off of our tax dollars. Oliver North was a military general and CIA higher up, the head of the CIA at the time, George HW Bush.
With the war in Afganistan it's the exact same f'n thing. This time our troops are 'casually not noticing' huge poppy crops in trade for information on terrorism. They also provide protection for heroin production facilities and transportation of the final product to the US so their informants get maximized profits without having to worry about competitive nations. Columbia is PISSED about this because they can't compete against a completely unfettered Afganistan.
In Florida specifically the economy isn't struggling enough for the profiteers to worry about the fact we can't afford to line their pockets. The economy in Florida REALLY has to tank to the extreme for them to suffer a 'margin loss' on their investments here to shift profiteering mode from prohibtions profits to taxation profits. Prisons nation wide are overcrowded because the privatized correction facilities make a per prisoner fee off our tax dollars despite the fact there's no room in the prisons the result is they're realizing obscene profit margins at the stock holder level without reallly having to provide a quality product. The 'quality product' of the corrections biz is that the prisoners stay in prison for the maximum sentance, not that the prisoners are comfortable and happy. 'We the people' are satisfied that the prisoners stay in prison, not the level of comfort for prisoners.
So yes for Florida, right now, the profits to the elite few are better under prohibtion than they would be from taxation. When money has to be diverted from the prisons to pay for things like roads, legislative salaries, government aid and maybe one day education then the prisons will lose their profit margin and prohibtion will no longer be cost effetive to the elite few. At that point legalization will occure so it can be taxed and provide income to the state to pay for these social services. Then prisons will reach a state where supply and demand are fairly equal rendering a stationary profit margin, they get profits but the profit per prisoner doesn't go up or down it stays fairly static.
There are several documentaries about it, one in particular on ShowTime calld American Drug.
In California they've reached a place where they can't afford to supply all the social services the people demand AND jail people for sensless laws. So they're currently trying for complete legazation in order to stabilize their eceonomy. Places like New Jerzey, Missouri, Illinois and Massachusits that have or are moving towards medical leaglization are not doing anything for the people or the peoples rights. They are legalizing to stabilize their suffering economies because the people can't afford higher taxes to provide every single social service.
Anyone who thinks the government operates in a place of 'we should do this because the people want it' is saddly mistaken. For easily the last 60 years (possibly 80 or so) almost every piece of legislation that has been passed was in order to profit someone. They smatter a few 'feel good' pieces of legislation here and there but they tend ot be minor laws that really only passify an obnoxious few (the so called Squeeky Wheel that really wants grease.)
-RT76
no cops allowed!!!!!!
