[evincarofautumn]

I can see where you got “conspiracy theory” out of that, but I would disagree: it has more to do with ordinary human behaviour.

It’s easy to keep things the way they are, even if that results in greater long-term cost and harm. This is particularly true if you’re the one in power and you stand to benefit from keeping things as they are—whether because you can make money from it, or just because you think it’s morally right.

You see this also in code: it’s “easier” to keep modifying a clunky legacy codebase than to rewrite it, even if rewriting would result in overall better software. It’s not usually a conspiracy to create inefficiency, but a series of penny-wise decisions often has the same pound-foolish effect.

Of course, I agree that if society’s attitude toward drugs changes, politics will naturally catch up.