I don't think right-populists get that you can subsidize something by banning it; that's university-economics thinking. If right-populists want the drug dealers to prosper less, they'll militarize the DEA more, not less.

On the one hand, yeah yeah, no one ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of the American people, etc.

One the other hand, I think most people in the US do understand pretty well that Prohibition was a bad idea, and they even understand why.