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 us 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, a time when alcohol 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 In the end, Prohibition was repealed and we returned to drinking alcohol legally.

Now the purpose of Prohibition was very similar to what we are trying to do right now, that is to make the production and sale of alcohol illegal. It was to be enforced by the three federal agencies, the United States Coast Guard, The Internal Revenue Service (aka the IRS), and the Bureau of Prohibition.

Now these agencies tried their very best to enforce Prohibition, but between the lack of public support, massive rise in illegal alcohol sales and bootleggers and lack of resources, they were simply overwhelmed and could not effectively enforce Prohibition.

Now if we step out or our time capsule and compare Prohibition to our current day War on Drugs, we can relate a lot of similarities. Both were enforced by the federal agencies with limited amount of resources. Both faced a massive and overwhelming black market that was hard to track and take down. Both had failed to complete the primary objective, which is to stop the production, distribution and sale of an illegal, controlled substance.

In light of all this, it is perhaps time, like what the federal government did with repeal of the 18^th amendment and Prohibition, that we should reconsider our approach to our War on Drugs.

A much better and sensible approach would be for us, the United States, to legalize, control, and distribute marijuana. By putting it under lock and key and under the watchful eye of some federal agency, we can effectively solve many of the problems that have plagued us as a nation, much more so 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.

According to the non-profit organization the Drug Policy Alliance, if we legalized marijuana and taxed sales of marijuana at rates similar to alcohol and tobacco, 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.

Based on those statistics, not only would we be saving $51 billion each year, we would potentially gain $47 billion in tax revenue each year. For perspective, NASA 2013 federal budget, which is available to the public on their website, is 17.7 billion dollars. The Department of Education 2013 budget, which also can be found on there website, has their budget at 69.8 billion dollars.

The combined savings and tax revenue that would come in from legalization, there be more then enough money to completely fund both NASA and the Department of Education, and we would still have 13 billion dollars remaining to fund other projects and agencies. That is enough money that if we gave it to NASA each year for 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.