Lets look at gun control as oppose to the top reason, income inequality.

[Andrespetmonkey]

HappySqurriel said:

Andrespetmonkey said:

HappySqurriel said:

The problem isn't the war on drugs, it is how the war on drugs is fought ...

If the United States put its resources that are being spent on the war on drugs towards monitoring their ports and borders, and tracking down drug labs, it would likely result in fewer drugs hitting the street and forcing them to sell them at a higher price; resulting in lower over-all addiction and usage rates. Basically, for the police to recover 10kg of drugs through street level arrests they (probably) have to make hundreds of arrests over several weeks/months; but it is likely that a greater amount is seized on the border or at manufacturing sites from a single arrest.

They are trying to collect grains of sand after they have been blown away by the wind ...

Or even easier and cheaper: Legalise or decriminalise all drugs.

I'm all for a rational system determining which drugs should be legal or illegal on a consistent basis, and if you're willing to eliminate the welfare state and public education so that a person's failure only has a negative impact on themself I'm open to most drugs being legalized, but there are many drugs that have negative consequences to people unrelated to those taking the drugs.

While I agree with bolded, decrimilisation with those systems in place is still more beneficial than criminalisation, as there will be less people negatively impacting others. Within a decade of decriminilisation of all drugs in Portugal the number of hard drug addicts halved (largely because support/treatment is given to addicts), and there was a substantial drop in drug-related crimes.  http://www.businessinsider.com/portugal-drug-policy-decriminalization-works-2012-7