Vested interests keep guns, drugs and discrimination alive in the US

Despite umpteen calls for banning guns, bringing in drugs control and eliminating racial discrimination in the United States, the authorities seem to have turned a deaf ear to them because of high-level political games, the unscrupulous pursuit of money by vested interests and deep-rooted racial prejudice.

Since assuming office, US President Joe Biden has issued dozens of gun control plans, but there has been no progress, as collective Republican opposition, backed by vested interests, can block the 60 votes needed to pass any major bill in the Senate.

That's a classic example of putting money over life and health.

According to a survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2020, 59.3 million Americans over the age of 12 engaged in substance abuse, including 49.6 million who used marijuana. Federal and state governments often promise to control drug abuse, but lobbying by vested interests ensures that they end up legalizing marijuana and other drugs. So far, only Nebraska and Idaho have not legalized marijuana. But on April 1, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to legalize marijuana, and once the Senate approves it, marijuana will be legalized at the federal level.

According to Forbes, California, the first state to legalize marijuana in the US, generated more than $1 billion in marijuana tax revenue in just two years, and legal marijuana sales in the US is expected to top $40 billion by 2025. According to a nonprofit organization that tracks political contributions in the US, in 2021, 22 interest groups spent $4.3 million and hired more than 100 professional lobbyists to campaign on Capitol Hill to legalize marijuana.

The lobby against gun control is even bigger. According to the Federal Election Committee, the National Rifle Association of America spent more than $30 million in support of former US president Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.

Rising white supremacy, fuelled by racist comments, is another problem ailing US society. Statistics show that African Americans, Hispanics and other ethnic minorities are much more likely than white people to die at the hands of law enforcers in the US, and the probability of black people being killed by the police is three times higher.

The three major sources of social unrest in the US－shootings, drug abuse and racial discrimination－kill more than 100,000 people in the country every year.