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US policy with regard to Mexico is hilarious. We ban drugs stateside, but that doesn't curtail domestic demand any. It just creates an empty niche to be filled in by the black market of our less-strict neighbors. The illegal trade, because of its increased risks, necessitates a larger logistics infrastructure to get the product to the buyer, driving up the cost of the goods and involving more people in the trade process to make it more obscure and harder to trace. The manpower drawn into the trade creates stateside worries, so we trump up the stakes by starting a War on Drugs, creating only a risker, and hence more profitable enterprise. The infrastructure increases in complexity in order to re-route, and prices skyrocket again. With larger profit margins, bosses have more funding available to research new delivery methods, such as drug subs, elaborate bribe schemes, etc., in order to guarantee steady business. This requires smart people, who are taken from more "legitimate" fields. In addition, the inter-cartel competition becomes more fierce to protect the now ridiculously overpriced goods, or to steal larger parts of the market. War breaks out between gangs, and between the cartels and the government. Civilians finally get hurt by these battles.
tl;dr: By attempting to de-legitimize the drug trade, we've only made it more viable. Drug trade is the free market system in its purest form. It's really a fascinating study of business methodology and how NOT to negotiate policy. What was once a completely benign and victimless act is now the very violent thing the vice groups wanted to portray it as a century ago. It took time, but they fulfilled their prophecy.
