Drugs did win the war.

Nicolas Kristoff's New York Times article Drugs Won The War was an eye opening account of the negative effects of America's war on drugs. Kristoff shows through cold hard fact that the war on drugs is a complete waste of resources. I agree with Kristoff; America needs a less stringent drug policy. However, I do not believe that all drugs should automatically be legal. Instead, I believe America needs to legalize Marijuana and then take a more complicated approach to possesion of other drugs. I believe America needs to focus more so on rehabilitation instead of punishment for drug abuse. Possesion of other strong drugs, such as heroine should carry a sentence of mandatory drug rehabilitation. Continued offenders should be subject to longer sentences in these rehab facilities. For distributors of "hard drugs" the only sensible thing to do is require jail time. However, just arresting dealers of "hard" drugs would significantly cut the number of drug arrests and isntead focus only on the true root of the problem: the distributor. However, until America realizes its prohibition of Marijuana is wastefull police forces around the country will continue to dedicate their time to arresting otherwise law abiding citizens who are caught with even the smallest amount of Marijuana.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opinion/14kristof.html?_r=1