Prison Profiteers

One aspect of drug prohibition that gets far too little attention is the fact that the drug war is immensely profitable for prohibitionists.

Ten former high-ranking officials of the Drug Enforcement Administration recently signed a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee criticizing the Obama administration for its supposed lack of zeal in enforcing marijuana prohibition. According to the letter, the administration chief delinquency is its reluctance to crack down on Washington and Colorado, and this is impermissible in light of supposedly sacred international obligations, such as “the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs… and the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances.”

Among the signatories of that letter were Robert L. Dupont, who headed the National Institute on Drug Abuse under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and Peter Bensinger, who was head of the DEA during most of that decade. Today, these drug warriors emeriti run a company calledBensinger, DuPont & Associates, which specializes in workplace drug testing.

Since they have a financial interest in marijuana prohibition, it’s reasonable to surmise that DuPont and Bensinger aren’t acting on purely idealistic motives, or out of pious ardor for the sanctity of United Nations accords.

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