There is a huge body of literature that looks at the use of behavior/puritan law systems as a means of controlling subject populations. selil
The War on Drugs is a war of our making that has caused great harm to our country and others. The saddest part is that it has only made the problem worse in many respects. Unfortunately, the war supports a number of government cottage industries now, and as Selil implied it still has strong support from the influencial Christian Right, so it will be interesting to see if a politician can develop enough political support to end it. Perhaps when the new administration swears in, they can take it upon themselves to make this part of their change agenda, they might have enough political strength to weather the propaganda storm that will attack them.

Failures:

1. Like the war on terror (a tactic) we have no strategy for the war on drugs. You can't wage a war on a commodity, so instead we are waging war on an economic system that results in undesired effects on social and political systems.

2. Targeting the leadership of drug organizations only assists their competitors, it does little to decrease the flow of illegal drugs, it only changes the names of the players involved.

3. As stated in numerous posts, we are not impacting the demand for this commodity, so by enactng tough laws we not only destroy the potential for an incredible tax base (assuming we legalize marijuana), we also created a huge and powerful underground economy that undermines the legitimate economy and government. During prohibition Capone made millions of dollars providing a commodity that the above ground economy couldn't. This gave Capone the power to buy cops, lawyers, judges, and if they couldn't be bought, hit men could. Prohibition gave guys and organizations like Capone's the power to subvert the government. This is exactly what we're seeing in Latin America (the corruption is spreading), especially Mexico, Central Asia, and increasingly in parts of Africa. They are not only narcoterrorists, but they are a narcostate (like a parallel universe).

4. Trillions of dollars generated from this trade has resulted in severe corruption, the raise of paramilitaries that can challenge the State, State protection for criiminals in some cases, etc. Mexico is only one case, and the results of this failed strategy are now seriously effecting our national security.

5. If we effectively marginalize one drug, another one takes it place (meth for example), so again the real issue is the demand side, the market always wins. We can either exploit it by regulating and taxing it, thus shifting the profits from the narcoterrorists to legitimate business men and the State. Before you jump on your high horse, we have legal tobacco and alcohol industries, or continue to make the situation worse. How many more prisons do we need to build?

I think we're past the myth that marijuana is a gateway drug, and I wonder what would happen if Marijuana was legalized, regulated and taxed? Would it undermine the demand for other drugs? We could make the penalties tougher for the other drugs if the market provided an alternative. Would it dry up the bank accounts of the narcoterrorists? Without their money, how much power would they be able to generate? You could call this leg of the strategy shifting the wealth.

I'm a realist, the narcoterrorist organizations must be destroyed, but until we destroy the lucrative market for illegal drugs (unforunately that probably means we'll have to provide legal ones), our current tactical efforts will have only result in a temporary impact at most. Once we have a strategy for undermining market demand, we can aggressively pursue destroying the narcoterrorist organizations with strict population and resource control measures.