What should be a domestic war has been pursued also as an international conflict. The senior Bush, first as vice president, then as president, continued to pursue a U.S. policy of drug intervention, sometimes declaring victory, often claiming great inroads in the war. We all know this was balderdash.
Drugs are as attainable as bubble gum.
We have become involved in sending our military and our covert agencies into harm's way in countries such as Colombia and Peru, and have very little to show for it other than others' nationalistic acrimony. That record drug busts take place at U.S. ports of entry almost daily is proof enough that the struggle on our part to prevent the drugs from being produced in the first place is an absolute failure. That we have ways to block the entry of some of those drugs is an indication that we can stem the tide better at home than we can outside the country. Let us admit to ourselves that there never will be a way we can stop illegal drugs entirely any more than we can completely stop corruption in our political system or child abuse in our homes. We can try to manage it, punish those we catch at it, but we can't eliminate it entirely.