I recall when I was in college, even a decent number of conservatives admitted the war on drugs was an abject policy failure and were sympathetic to calls for decriminalization. It was far from a radical position, pretty much anyone I know to the left of fucking Reagan was at least open to it.

Now weirdly I’ve been seeing a lot of Lib and even some “progressive-lib” spaces arguing against decriminalization and advocating for more aggressive anti-drug policy. Heck, I’ve even seen a few op-eds pop up arguing that alcohol prohibition was a good thing. Even some socialists I know are weirdly pro-drug enforcement now.

Seems to be somewhat linked to a lot of cities having issues with unhoused people using drugs in public and that being viewed as some evidence that decriminalization failing, and not, yah know, lack of affordable housing making people do shit in public they normally would do in the privacy of their own home.