[ddtaylor]

It's actually quite common in the US to have drug offenders serve significantly longer sentences than many violent crimes and even sexual abuse of children. It also depends heavily on if the state or federal government prosecutes them. As an example a child abuser prosecuted at the state level might receive an 8 year sentence with a larger portion of it suspended or served as parole, whereas a drug case prosecuted by the federal government might get a sentence of 10 years of which they are required by law to serve 8.5 (85%) in addition to their 5 years of supervised release.

[User23]

Many people have some kind of mistaken belief that all drug offenders are just friendly dopes like their neighborhood pot dealer. However, illegal drugs are not only directly the leading cause of death among Americans age 18-45, the trafficking business also adds considerable marginal violence. Two famous examples are the 90s crack wars and the Miami cocaine wars. While drug related murders today get little press outside of local if-it-bleeds-it-leads coverage, a considerable number of persons are still getting murdered every year in drug related violence.

Contrariwise illegal streaming has never directly killed anyone and illegal streamer gangs aren’t doing drivebys or otherwise murdering people.

[ddtaylor]

There are _much_ fewer people incarcerated right now for fentanyl than cocaine.

> the trafficking business also adds considerable marginal violence

Because of it's black market situation and the war that the DEA wages. Other countries have shown pathways to regulation where the dust settles.