I have actually advocated decriminalization of at least some drug crimes over the years, including on the AWF forums. (Probably in the Watercooler, been too long for me to remember in detail.)
G., if we legalized some drugs and forced two things, it would kill the profit motive and make some of the drug wars die down. First, require a tax stamp similar to the way that liquor is taxed here. Alcohol here is sold with green, pink, or black tax stamps based on percent of alcohol by volume. Second, to qualify for that stamp, your product must undergo quality test to verify that it has not been "cut" with a dangerous substance. Some drugs have been found to have been mixed with other prescription or over-the-counter drugs such as colchicine, which is an anti-gout medicine that can be debilitating in large doses.
If you take the risk out of the drug trade and make it legally regulated and competitive, the drug wars maybe wouldn't go away - but they would diminish drastically. The illegal actions taht would replace the drug runners would be cheap bootleg stuff sold with no tax stamp - and the feds could go after the remaining drugistas for tax evasion. Which is actually how they finally convicted Al Capone. They never could get him on making the bathtub gin, but they got him for not paying taxes on the profits. Now THERE, the USA would have a money motive to control the drugs and folks would understand better.
Heck, it might even be a strange, back-door way to teach the gang members, who are usually disaffected young men, some basics about commerce and economic reality. What a strange benefit.
We are currently examining the marijuana problem because many states are defying federal law and legalizing medicinal MJ. I'm not going to worry about pot growers too much. It's the guys who work in back-yard meth labs with volatile solvents and the risk of explosions or fires, or the guys who bring in cocaine or heroin via fast boats and various convoys across the border.