May 14, 2010 3:12PM # Associated Press: Drug War Failing By [Tim Lynch](https://www.cato.org/people/tim-lynch) --- SHARE From an Associated Press story: > 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.” > > > Former Drug Czar John Walters complains, “To say that all the things that have been done in the war on drugs haven’t made any difference is … 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.” Precisely. Read the [whole thing](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100513/ap_on_re_us/failed_drug_war). More [here](https://www.cato.org/2010/05/12/obamas-new-drug-strategy/) and [here](https://www.cato.org/drug-war). ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).