Pretty much everyone under 50 in the US is aware that the drug war failed. Once we rule out those on the right who feel that the only reason it failed was a lack of authoritarianism, need it to justify various prejudices towards the "wrong" sort of people etc.. and the like, we come down to even vaguely centrists from a social point of view and an even wider group for economic ones (though the specifics of implementation may differ), see that this is a failed, ineffective strategy. Especially among those who define themselves as left leaning, why is ending the drug war and replacing it with legalization and regulated, affordable substances a greater political focal point?
Every historical and material example shows that prohibition is not going to be effective and brings its own problems, not to mention that the motivation for these policies were often intentional to hurt varying groups of people deemed undesirable - from the entire alcohol prohibition era until its repeal for instance, or the now famous Nixon staffer talking about how drugs were an easy way to target 'the hippies, mexicans, and blacks', the cocaine era and crack epidemic, AIDS being spread by sharing needles, and so much more. Its now common knowledge that not only did "drugs win the drug war, and continue to do so" but all the harm done by it also made profiteers wealthy, from narco traffickers who operated private armies, to the whole Iran-Contra affair and Air America black budget work in the Golden Triangle during and after Vietnam, to military-industrial complex extended to militarized policing etc. Most of the money went to a handful of people from the criminal enterprise or those ostensibly fighting it, while people paid more for worse quality, less safe products. This is no longer the kind of thing you'd only read about from some underground zine next to psychotic ramblings, its well documented and seemingly, accepted . So why are we not doing anything about it ?
It seems that the only lefties who comment on the drug issue at all are those with the myopic to just plain incorrect issue of fixating on pharmaceutical companies, doctors etc.. at fault for things like the opioid crisis, which is far from the truth. While certain companies like Perdue Pharma were guilty of malfeasance (the specifics here I can get into but the way they advertised it even to medical professionals was inaccurate ) and there were cash only "pill mill" doctors
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