The Big Circle Boys used to be the big credit card frauders in Canada (often using bin readers in restaraunts), but now the eastern Europeans are ahead just for the amount of card fraud on the net. The card companies just roll their insurance loss adjustments into costs and charge back to the consumer. No big deal to them, so there is no organized interest in doing much. Slippery slope from the point of view of privacy as per monitoring activity on the Net.
As to the war on drugs, it is a huge industry for the U.S. It allows them to operate on foreign soil, spying and finance other endevours with the profit made through interdiction and reselling (as per the Iran / Contra, Noriega connection, all the way back to Air America / Montinyar). With the influence the U.S. government excersises internationally on this 'war on drugs' and the benefit to privatized prisons stateside, the idea of 'harm reduction' does not have the same ring as overpowering private citizens at 6am with force of arms to bust a flower garden. It is an everyday thing in Canada with over 20,000 people a year convicted on simple possession.
