One is that recreational use is skyrocketing and has doubled among teenagers during the past year. There's no reason to believe this nonsense will be any more effective now than it has been with any previous wave of substance abuse.
Drugs are cheaper, more pure and more widely available than at any other time in our history.
There are many reasons the standard approach has failed, but one key factor is that it does not deal with the demand for drugs. Education, not incarceration, is the key to reducing demand, which is the only way real progress will be made. But education begins with accurate information, and that's been in short supply when it comes to MDMA, largely because federal laws make it nearly impossible to do research with humans. One important animal study suggests that even one recreational dose of ecstasy may cause permanent brain damage, and that's certainly cause for alarm. Yet that study has been widely criticized as inconclusive, and many experts maintain that we just don't know what the risks are.