Obama has now delivered a third body blow to the war on drugs

[Xipe Totec]

28. The reason that indian wars lasted 100 years in New Spain

Is that it was profitable for both sides to continue the practice.

Indians acquired property by raiding caravans, and Spaniards acquired slaves capturing the raiders. There was no incentive to kill the raiders because dead slaves aren't productive.

So the wars went on for a century until the viceroy realized what was happening and outlawed the practice of capturing slaves. Once the incentive of capturing slaves was removed, Spaniards began defending the caravans with deadly force, and the raids stopped because the risk became too high.

Likewise, the war on drugs has prolonged because there's profit to be made on both sides.

Remove the profit motive and suddenly the problem disappears.