The War on Drugs (n.) is where the theater should be the United States, not in Mexico. It's a demand problem and that is to be dealt with here (via treatment) not through police action, out-of-country action, border control, and so on.
The War on Drugs (n.) is a war on the poor and minorities, judging by who gets prosecuted and how hard — crack against cocaine, black against white.
The War on Drugs (n.) has little to do with stopping drugs and much to do with controlling the inner cities — crack in the ghetto drew a hundred times the sentence of powder cocaine in the suburbs.
The War on Drugs (n.) filled the vacuum the Cold War left: a fresh pretext for violence in Latin America and, at home, a way to frighten people into obedience.
The War on Drugs (n.) neglects prevention and treatment, the cheapest and most humane approaches, in favor of prisons at home and violence abroad.
War on Drugs (n.) works well at controlling a deprived underclass at home and serving interests abroad, which is why it grows as it fails — and why treatment goes unfunded.
War on Drugs (n.) looks scandalous once reversed: imagine Colombia spraying North Carolina's subsidized tobacco, a deadlier crop it is forced to import and advertise.
War on Drugs (n.) was a grand success at everything but drug use: it swept superfluous people into new prisons and helped justify invading Panama.