Yes, that does seem odd doesn't it? I think the problem in the US is the US WoD has a playbook with just 1 play in it: tough on drug crime. Coupled with the unwritten rule that politicians of the same party should never openly criticize their own publicly, that one play in the one playbook is very difficult to change. Couple that with the fact that both of the two political parties in the US use that same one play from their one playbook and you can understand why it's taken 46 years to not solve the problem.