It would need to start happening in a country that's in a position of defying the United States, or happening in the United States itself.

So long as the policy is perpetuated by people who are elected by those who still sheltered from the worst of it, I wouldn't expect any change.

Particularly not now that there's a robust military-incarceration-industrial lobby with a strong incentive to maintain the status quo and no limitation on their ability to make 'campaign contributions'.

Very well said. The media generally doesn't specify and inter-relate the problems or state them as plainly.

Having a gigantic drug war going on right across the US border in Mexico is a crazy thing to begin with. Add to that it's about owning territory to import drugs into the US, to feed a large demand.

Plus the cartels make bales of money on marijuana sales, when it could easily be a huge cash crop for so many US counties. Job creation blah blah blah.

I'd support legalization and taxation of marijuana, it seems like the honest thing to do since it's everywhere anyway and doesn't seem to destroy people's lives like crack and meth.

Legalize 'em all. It's unpopular, but it's the only solution that doesn't lead to ever-increasing authoritarianism.

Drugs don't destroy lives, addiction does. Prohibition drives addicts underground. This makes the problem harder to solve, not easier.

The legal status of tobacco and alcohol are proof-positive that biology isn't the metric that's used. It's politics and big business, pure and simple.

Have you seen Law Enforcement Against Prohibition - http://www.leap.cc/ ? They appear to be a rare bastion of sanity on the subject. I keep meaning to buy one of their t-shirts.

Given how much money the cartels are making, I wonder if they are funding politicians lobbying to keep marijuana, cocaine etc. illegal?