The WOD CANNOT be won. We can simply turn back to the 1920s, and watch the illegal stamp put on alcohol...and see that the efforts of the police and laws...simply didn't do the job. People generally looked the other way. Eventually....we got to the point of seeing how worthless the effort was, and state by state...we stopped prohibition.
The WOD is the same way. You could hire 30,000 additional cops...have drug tests in 30 percent of the work places of America...seize personal property of citizens convicted of drug use...and even start executing anyone with a significant amount of drugs in their possession as a sales guy. It does not matter. They won't stop. I can walk through any neighborhood in Mobile...even upper class neighborhoods...and 20 percent of the folks are smoking pot. There are college professors doing coke. There are congressmen using drugs. It doesn't matter.
You want to have an impact? Legalize pot alone...authorize dealers in each county where it can be bought, and tax the heck out of it...and watch tax revenue jump by leaps and bounds. Face a serious reality here...there are probably 10,000 cops throughout the US...on the payroll of some local or international drug cartel. DEA has them and so does the border patrol. We are spinning wheels.
If by "won" you mean the complete elimination of recreational drugs, you're right. It cannot be won.
It's a goal, yes. Just as the elimination of any other crime is a goal. But you're being a bit disingenuous to say that the War on Drugs can't be won so let's give up and go ahead and legalize ... uh ... how about only pot? Where did that come from?
OK. You referenced Prohibition. What would have happened if, during Prohibition, we legalized only wine? Would that have had an "impact"? In a word, no.
Legalize pot and tax the heck out of it and you'll drive it right back underground (to the existing network). We see that already happening with cigarettes.
The combination of the drug laws, enforcement of those laws, and an attitude change, led to a 65% drop in marijuana use from 13.2% in 1979 to 4.6% in 1993. It remained relatively flat for the next 10 years, though it is up recently. Without turning into a police state, maybe the best we can do is 5-7%.
Currently, 30% of marijuana users are underage. With legalization, that number is sure to grow. If legalization doubled the number of teens smoking marijuana, would you still favor legalization? Just curious.