Drug use is increasing. Treatment not sought due to users' fears of being criminalized, incarcerated, or even killed. Dangerous cartels arise from prohibition because anything driven underground can't be regulated.
"You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
These were the words of John Ehrlichman, Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Nixon.