The problem with the war on drugs is that it is a supply-side war. Instead of reducing demand, the US is trying to limit supply.

Basic economics says that if you reduce supply without reducing demand, the price will rise. The increased price will encourage the entry of more suppliers, in spite of the increased cost of production due to law enforcement. People will literally risk their lives for the obscene profits that drug enforcement creates.

Look at Breaking Bad. Making the drug was easy for a HS chemistry teacher. Distribution by evading the law was the hard part. Because the supply was limited while demand was not, the price was high enough for him to risk his life selling. Even if he were killed, there would be someone else willing to risk it all for so much money.

Without addressing and reducing demand, the war of drugs is just making drug lords rich. This is the lesson of Prohibition, where limited supply and unaddressed made mobsters very wealthy men, even in the midst of the Great Depression.