After 40 years, the United States' war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence even more brutal and widespread.
Even U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske concedes the strategy hasn't worked.

"In the grand scheme, it has not been successful," Kerlikowske told The Associated Press. "Forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified."

In the past, Bolivia has tried to banish the coca leaf--a mild stimulant--from production. But now that coca grower Evo Morales is president, the government has changed its stance. Morales' administration backs the coca leaf for certain uses, including teas, liqueurs, toothpaste, and now Coca-Colla. At the same time, the government has booted drug enforcement officials out of the country.

While marijuana is more mainstream than ever, legalization still faces backlash from the powers that be.

DRAMATIC video has emerged showing a bungled CIA drug operation that led to Peruvian fighter jets shooting down a light plane carrying American missionaries.

The disturbing 2001 surveillance plane footage, aired on America's ABC News, shows the Peruvian fighters opening fire on a seaplane being shadowed by a CIA aircraft.

Sheriff Raymond Martin once pulled his service revolver from its holster and pointed it at his drug-dealing partner, warning the man there was no "getting out" of their relationship, a criminal complaint against Martin alleges.

We told you earlier about how Martin, the sheriff in rural Gallatin County in southern Illinois, was arrested last May on drug and gun charges for allegedly dealing marijuana that had been confiscated by police.