Yeah, I don't wish for a re-hashing either. The American 'war on drugs' has been a failure, but that was always just empty bullshit. I think with sufficient policing you'll get rid of the black market, but there are many factors to consider when deciding if that's a good idea.
Ah, the old "it wasn't real prohibition" argument.
Sure, we could go full Sharia law and the like and probably eliminate 99% of it--but at what cost? Do you really support such draconian measures and the society it would produce? Fighting human nature is usually a losing proposition. Almost nobody has the balls to do what's necessary, and when they do go full Duterte, you have these pesky international NGOs complaining about "human rights violations", death squads, show trials, erosion of democracy, police brutality, planted evidence, corrupt judges, false convictions, etc.
Do you really support such draconian measures and the society it would produce? Fighting human nature is usually a losing proposition.
Human nature is endangered - fighting it is soon to become trivially easy, if it's not already. The technology we now have is enabling absolute societal control, and far from nobody having the balls to do what's necessary, it looks like a smooth slide towards a full nightmare dystopia.
I think eliminating the cocaine trade is something quite doable with modest technology and minimal human rights violations, and is something I could support. Unfortunately those in charge don't seem to be capable of doing something like that without abusing their power so that the net effect is far more detrimental to society.
The legalization vs prohibition arguments are fairly standard. Idk if it needs to be rehashed here.
To address your point of inadequate police I will counter that no matter the amount of policing you will never get rid of the black-market. To that point the 'war on drugs' has been a failure.