On January 1^st 2014, the people of Colorado lined up at dispensary in order to be among the first to buy marijuana. Not for medicinal use, but for recreational use and within the law. A sight that many thought would never come true appears just a little closer to reality.

But now let just take a step back to about two years ago, to June 2^nd 2011, when an international committee of 19 people in a report for the Global Commission on Drug Policy effectively concluded that the war on drugs had failed. It had failed at the expense of billions dollars spent, thousands incarcerated and decades wasted. All of that time, money and resources spent and wasted; only to effectively have accomplished nothing.

So here is the question we must answer: what do we do next? It is clear that the current strategy of criminalizing marijuana and other illegal substances has accomplished very little, and some may argue has actually made situations worse. We now have even more violent gangs and cartels to the point where organized crime effectively controls entire countries.

Now if you are somewhat of a history buff, these details and descriptions may vaguely remind you of another time, another time when alcohol, not drugs, was illegal. Yes, that is right, good old Prohibition. Just in case you do not know what Prohibition is, it was a period that lasted from 1920-1933 in which the United States banned the production and consumption of alcohol. In the end, Prohibition was repealed and we returned to drinking alcohol legally.

If we were to compare the war on drugs to prohibition, it would become very obvious they are very similar. Both were started as a way to mediate a social problem, both used massive amounts of resources and both could not effectively accomplish what they set out to do. With all these similarities, would it not be safe to conclude that such an approach does not work?

A much better approach would be for us, the United States, to legalize, control, and distribute marijuana. By putting it under lock and key, we can effectively solve many of the problems that have plagued us as a nation much more effectively then any paramilitary campaign could ever accomplish.

But you may be asking yourself, “What could we possibly gain from basically going backwards and accepting and allowing drug users to legally buy drugs?” While such legislation would be most certainly hypocritical, imagine what we would gain from it. Economically, if we legalized marijuana and taxed those sales, estimates of 47 billion dollars could be brought in annually to the federal government. In contrast, we spend about 51 billion annually on the war on drugs.

Not only would we be saving 51 billion each year, we would gain potentially 47 billion each year. For scale, NASA’s 2013 federal budget is only 16.6 billion dollars. The Department of Education’s budget is 69 billion dollars. Between the savings we would get and the additional revenue we could obtain, we would have more than enough money to completely fund both NASA and the Department of Education, and we would have 13 billion dollars still left over. That is enough money that if we gave it to NASA each year for over 5 years, we would have enough to send a manned mission to Mars.

Socially, the benefits would also be significant. By legalizing marijuana, we would effectively remove the power and control of gangs and cartels. By cutting off one of the significant sources of income, they would exert less power and would have less of a grip on cities and countries, paving the way for the United States and its allies to shut down organized crime for good. We would reclaim our cities and actually have a shot at well, for a lack of a better term, winning the war.

As I wrap this article, we will all be holding our breath and waiting to see if Colorado succeeds in its grand adventure. And, in the likelihood that they do, it will be only be a matter of time before the rest of the country considers following suit. In my mind, the sooner the better, it is time for us to end this war. It has been a long time coming.