Conservatives and libertarians have long disagreed about the drug laws, but over the years many traditional conservatives, such as William F. Buckley, have broken ranks with the prohibitionist orthodoxy. George Melloan, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, a publication long staunchly behind the Drug War, recently asked if the attempt to protect the nation’s social fabric through prohibition might actually be damaging the social fabric.

Moreover, many law enforcement officers now suggest the previously unmentionable–that the so-called Drug War is both unwinnable and counterproductive. Jack A. Cole, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, recently observed: “Legalizing drugs will not solve all the very real problems we have that are the byproducts of drug abuse. But it will greatly inhibit underage access and virtually eliminate all violence affiliated with the current illegal market.”

Indeed, the illegal markets created by prohibition corrupt everyone and everything that they touch. Afghanistan is back as the world’s biggest opium producer; even cabinet members are said to be on the take. America is not immune: in February two U.S. air marshals were arrested for apparently using their positions to smuggle drugs.

Traffickers are nothing it not entrepreneurial. Mexican gangs have dug sophisticated tunnels under the border with the U.S. Last month it was revealed that Columbian dealers implanted liquid heroin in dogs shipped to America.

And while interdiction can affect the supply and thus price of illegal substances, it doesn’t seem to have much impact on demand and use. Even the Office of National Drug Control Policy has acknowledged that “cocaine is widely available throughout most of the nation.” The situation involving heroin and marijuana is little different.

Indeed, government figures show that millions of people continue to use drugs every year–tens of millions have done so over their lifetimes. In short, current policy has given us the worst of both worlds: problems of drug use and drug prohibition.

As Jack Cole notes, there is no good answer. But we have to choose the best of a set of bad options. It’s time to focus on kids while leaving adults alone. Drug abuse is a moral, health, and spiritual problem. It shouldn’t a matter of the criminal law.