OPINION: "The War on Drugs Is a Failure," by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Cesar Gaviria, and Ernesto Zedillo, Wall Street Journal, 23 February 2009.

Gets pretty clear here:

Prohibitionist policies based on eradication, interdiction and criminalization of consumption simply haven't worked.

Instead, we see the "criminalization of politics and a politicization of crime" in Latin America, where democracy is being severely undermined.

Answer?

Medicalize the consumption issue here in the States.

I agree completely. We're wasting vast amounts of money and lives. The vast bulk of this issue is pot, and pot isn't any more damaging on a social scale than alcohol or tobacco.

We simply drew the line at the wrong place, and we and Latin America are paying through the nose as a result.