Books and television shows, such as the Corner, provide illustrations that can give a level of insight as to why this is the case. It is not drugs alone, but also the drug culture and the level of poverty that stands at the heart of the problem. You cannot simply remove drugs from the equation. Even if you confiscate drugs then the street price rises and more drugs are imported. Even beyond that, you must treat the sociological problems that led people to drugs along with the physical dependency on drugs themselves to have any meaningful impact on the problem.

The ineffective War on Drugs has also caused a host of social changes. For every person that is incarcerated, there is usually some broken family that has to deal with their absence. When an individual is in jail there is really nothing they can do to support their families or...
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