content: Stop wasting time going after people for pointless crap like personal drug use or prostitution and actually protect society.  That's not profitable, so no. The bottom line is this.  Petty crime and the war on drugs generates an absurd amount of revenue for the country, the states, and dozens of private corporations.  Questioning any aspect of that, especially drugs, which is probably the biggest source of income for your average police department, is going to be met with massive resistance.  You are literally challenging the foundations of corruption and greed, and that's not going to be an easy fight.  There is much more money to be made in keeping people afraid of terrorists than there is by actually stopping them.  If we actually put our resources to use and stopped attacks, people wouldn't be scared any more, and when people aren't scared, they start looking at the world around them and asking questions.  Those questions start getting really uncomfortable for the people in charge, and they've had over 100 years of lessons on just how important it is to keep your people quiet.  Our government is afraid of us, which is why they're watching us like fucking hawks and trying to destroy any camouflage they can.  How good is massive data collection if you can't read anything?