The Drug War accounts for 60 percent of all federal prisoners and 30 percent of all state prisoners. But the enemy's ranks are always replenished. The Viet Cong kept recruiting new soldiers and civilian supporters. Likewise the drug dealers. Drug demand remains high.
Wars cause casualties.
No one knows how many lives the Drug War has claimed, but the number may be in the tens of thousands. Suppression of drug supplies by the authorities raises the prices of drugs, enticing people to become suppliers on the black market. Unable to resolve disputes legally and keen to retain their turf, dealers resort to violence. Police officers and the suspects they kill add to the toll. Innocent bystanders get killed, too, and as in Vietnam, many of them are children.