In short, it's really hard to figure out how much anti-drug strategies reduce crime (it's hard to figure out how much any strategy reduces crime—statistics in this field are woefully inadequate), so it's really difficult to figure out whether drug control expenditures are actually worth the high price tag. We don't know whether drug enforcement units—which are found in police stations all across the country—do any good. We don't know whether mandatory minimum penalties reduce trafficking or not (many police chiefs think they don't). We don't even know if breaking up drug markets—which is very effort-intensive and requires constant sweeps and raids—decrease trafficking. The only thing that seems clear is that attacking the supply of drugs from abroad definitely hasn't had much effect.

...Congress—and various federal administrations—tend to treat drug use primarily as a crime problem, when it makes sense in many cases to separate the two issues out. People have come up with some good ideas about what would constitute a more sensible national drug policy, but the paradigm shift here seems like the necessary first step.