Back in 2008, the Senate approved an aid package to combat drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America, with a record $400 million going to Mexico and $65 million to Central America.

The United States has been spending $69 billion a year worldwide for the last 40 years, for a total of $2.5 trillion, on drug prohibition — with little to show for it.

In 2019, the Mexican drug cartels effectively rule the border and control the drug flow into America.

Is anyone actually benefiting from this war? Six groups come to mind.

Winners in the War on Drugs

• Drug lords in nations such as Colombia, Afghanistan and Mexico, as well as those in the United States. They are making billions of dollars every year — tax free.
• Street gangs that infest many of our cities and neighborhoods, whose main source of income is the sale of illegal drugs.
• People in government who are paid well to fight the first two groups. Their powers and bureaucratic fiefdoms grow larger with each tax dollar spent to fund this massive program that has been proved not to work.
• Politicians who get elected and reelected by talking tough — not smart, just tough — about drugs and crime.
• People who make money from increased crime – those who build prisons and those who staff them.
• Terrorist groups worldwide that are principally financed by the sale of illegal drugs.

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Losers in the War on Drugs

• Literally everyone else, especially our children.

This is the U.S. on drugs – Los Angeles Times