Is there any other issue where there's such a dramatic disconnect between politicians and regular people? A majority of the country supports legalizing marijuana; I doubt more than ten or twenty Congresspeople do.
Universal background checks
Raising taxes on millionaires/billionaires
Increasing minimum wage
Not cutting Medicare/Social Security
Precisely - anything that Capital wants, it gets - it doesn't matter one bit what the majority wants. So, if marijuana were to remain illegal, one would have to ask - why do the people that matter want it to be illegal. (as a matter of fact I doubt Capital cares very deeply about this particular bit of the oppression).
there are powerful interest groups that depend upon continued drug criminalization for survival. some of these are not directly reducible to 'capital' (correctional officers' unions, for instance). it also provides a cover for counterinsurgency operations in South America. these are the main sources of resistance.
a better example of big money indifference is the gay marriage issue. another is the abortion issue. the idea being to draw major emotional responses out of people and get them to organize and vote along lines that have nothing to do with their own economic self-interest.
Oh. My. God. The number of inmates for mj offenses, and even accepting your standard internet conspiracy about CIA trafficking, the overwhelming share of drug trafficking proceeds isn't from mj.
Reliance on canards is dense.
