The War on Drugs have created much of the same effects that Prohibition had in the 1920's. Despite the laws, America's consumer spending on drugs is so great that the drug cartels have used the profits to create an almost unstoppable empire that will soon reach the U.S. These cartels are already battling many governments in South America and Mexico, and in some cases they are winning. Don't forget the street gangs in every major U.S. city that have used the proceeds of drugs to build their own empires which result in terrible violence. On top of this, the current laws wastefully fill our jails and prisons.
We must legalize drugs in a way that does not allow the profits to fund violence, which means regulation and privatization in a staged process that begins with medicinal purposes.