Probably the CIA in bed with those criminal gangs too like Lucky Luciano with the heroin. It’s way more profitable if it’s illegal and the more draconian the sentence if you are caught the higher risk premium you can charge. I’m convinced that the CIA is heavily involved with 90% of the major drug smuggling and selling operations in the United States and that’s the reason for prohibition. Also big pharma and oil companies profit.
They could tax it if they legalized it but then it’s not black budget money and even a 50% tax would be less total because if easily grown psychoactive plants are legal the price trends towards zero.