I got some insight into this a couple of years back while working at a local hospital that has been at the forefront of addiction treatment, research, and education - all things that ostensibly I am supportive of. The hospital was awarded 54 million in grant funding to be used to support additional research and develop new treatment methods to deal with addictive disorders. When I started to go through and look at the various ways that the money was getting spread around, it became increasingly apparent that a large amount of the money was being channeled into small projects, of which there were numerous, funding salaries for their study leads and administrative staff. Many of these projects were not particularly groundbreaking, and yet, given the sheer number of them within the hospital, a huge chunk of the 54 million got gobbled up by these sort of redundant positions within the various clinics. The PIs get their little projects funded, the money gets to be "put towards addictions research" and in the end, it has very little positive impact on the people money like this is supposed to be helping.The same reason governments funnel billions into CERN and fusion research. It's a huge fucking gravy train for everyone involved, and it's a perpetual one at that. No discernible end point for it, just keep shovelling in more money. Fusion is always just "twenty years away!".
It's the same trick used over and over again. Whether it be scientific pursuits, pharmaceuticals, war, what have you. The easiest market in the world is the one you conjure out of nothing and which the public can not dispute one way or the other.
I had this feeling of disgust when I saw how skewed the money always is in providing means for the research gravy train to take care of itself, rather than to actually use that money to address any real systemic needs for people struggling with addictions.
Why fix the issues related to addiction when you can create maintenance infrastructure and milk those sweet suffering dollars along the way?