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MEXICO CITY (AP) — After 40 years, the United States' war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence even more brutal and widespread.

Even U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske concedes the strategy hasn't worked.

"In the grand scheme, it has not been successful," Kerlikowske told The Associated Press. "Forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified."

Yes. Yes! Did I just hear a drug czar basically admit that the drug war completely sucks? Well then, what are you going to do about it?

Nevertheless, his administration has increased spending on interdiction and law enforcement to record levels both in dollars and in percentage terms; this year, they account for $10 billion of his $15.5 billion drug-control budget.

Kerlikowske, who coordinates all federal anti-drug policies, says it will take time for the spending to match the rhetoric.

Really? Why? This isn't hard, dude. You just stop paying everybody to f@#king destroy everything. I mean, it's interesting that he admits their rhetoric is nonsense, but that was already super obvious. We're in the middle of an economic crisis, and here's the drug czar telling us we can't stop funding programs that even he himself admits are a complete waste. What the hell is going on here?

It's easy to call the Obama Administration out on their hypocrisy, and we should. But it's also worth contemplating why they're doing such a miserable job of defending their own drug strategy. I think the difference between Kerlikowske and his predecessor is that John Walters actually bought into his own hype. His ego won't let him understand the destruction he oversaw. I don't believe Kerlikowske is even loyal to the war in the first place. I think he's just trying to do his job while pissing off as few people as possible. He aims to placate the public by acknowledging the obvious, while simultaneously ensuring that the drug war industrial complex is still able to pay its bills.

So which is worse, a drug czar who won't learn from his mistakes, or one who continues to support policies he knows are wrong?

This comment from the former drug czar perfectly explains why drug warriors are so incapable of ever admitting failure:

"To say that all the things that have been done in the war on drugs haven't made any difference is ridiculous," Walters said. "It destroys everything we've done. It's saying all the people involved in law enforcment, treatment and prevention have been wasting their time. It's saying all these people's work is misguided." [AP]

Well, yeah. If your idea of law enforcement is shoving guns in the faces of misdemeanor drug suspects, if your idea of treatment is forcing casual marijuana users into drug therapy, and if your idea of prevention is spending countless millions on anti-drug ads that are proven to increase drug use, then I would call you "misguided," to say the least.

This is what you've accomplished, sir, and instead of demanding gratitude, you should consider yourself lucky you haven't yet been paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in tar and feathers.