Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said that after a year-long investigation by a Senate subcommittee, "it's becoming increasingly clear that our efforts to rein in the narcotics trade in Latin America, especially as it relates to the government's use of contractors, have largely failed."

The report comes a week after a high-powered commission of former world leaders came to the conclusion that the global war on drugs had "failed." Mark wrote about that report, last week.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the Senate subcommitte couldn't find any evidence that the billions of dollars spent on fighting the war on drugs was actually reducing the amount of illegal narcotics that found their way into the United States:

"We are wasting tax dollars and throwing money at a problem without even knowing what we are getting in return," said Sen.Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who chairs the Senate subcommittee that wrote one of the reports, which was released Wednesday.

"I think we have wasted our money hugely," agreed Bruce Bagley, who studies U.S. counter-narcotics efforts and chairs international studies at the University of Miami at Coral Gables, Fla. "The effort has had corrosive effects on every country it has touched."

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that investigators looked at Pentagon and State Department spending in Latin America from 2005 to 2009.

The Obama administration, reports the Times, does not agree with the report:

White House officials say the expanding U.S. counter-narcotics effort occupies a growing portion of time for President Obama's national security team even though it garners few headlines or congressional hearings in Washington.

Not evil. Just stupid.

Did anyone think a war against a concept could ever be successful?

The War on Terror is over. President Obama got him, and soundly defeated George W. Bush. Don't you remember that?

According to NPR, the new tactic isn't that it's the drug trafficker's fault, it the fault of US citizens for wanting something that should be legal. If only we didn't have the market for it, criminals wouldn't be making huge profits. Let's ignore that fake crimes still draw in real criminals and that the illegality of the whole thing is what makes their profit margins so high.

Yeah, I'd rather not settle for less though. It would figure that our political class, in their hubris for wanting to be the guiding hand for the clueless masses, would want to start trying to mold how people think/behave.

You know what works? Liberty.

But seriously, what is the "it" that you are saying works? Molding how people think?

Yes, but no government can entirely eliminate the sinful human condition. I realize our current government position on controlled substances is highly hypocritical as we largely ignore the social, safety and health impacts of drinking and smoking.
I'm not comfortable voting for the full on legalization of MJ or crack personally though. Im not certain the gangsters would just disappear in a puff of smoke or melt like the wicked witch of the west because we legalize them.

Yes. Governments can successfully mold how people think.

Sounds good to me DE. I didn't mean to say we should outlaw alcohol or tobacco. I'm just saying I have problems with the legalizing MJ will get rid of gangbangers argument.