[lukifer]

I highly recommend Kevin Simler's "Consciousness: An Outside View" for a richer take on the politics of drugs: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2013/07/01/consciousness-an-outsid... (Obviously, The Wire also.)

But yes, both the WoD and WoT employ similar tactics: disproportionate power and violence under the guise of safety, while downplaying the human and financial costs to a broader public who is mostly insulated from the reality of the situation.

In both cases, I don't think the motivations for doing so are singular; there's a little racism in there, a little classism, a little jingoism, a good helping of perverse financial incentives, and perhaps most insidiously, Just Because We Can. (See "Lord of War" or "Thank You For Smoking": people like doing what they're good at.)