The politicians probably know it's a mess but aren't quite sure how to change it. Cannabis is practically normalised in most states and, it seems to me, the war on drugs narrative is being undermined by the over-prescription of opiates in the American healthcare industry anyway.

There'll be changes for sure in time, done by whichever politician can put it in terms of saving money for the taxpayer, which is surely an argument that will gain traction because rehab is a fraction of the cost of both the war on drugs and the associated costs of drug-crime that the taxpayer picks up the tab for.

There was a thing called the "British System", whereby the handful of heroin addicts were prescribed their drug and that was that (it wasn't without it faults but it was effective for a good many number of years). The number of heroin addicts didn't skyrocket until after the war on drugs was initiated.