( CNN ) -- `` The war on drugs has failed '' is a mantra often heard in policy and media circles these days . But not only is the phrase outdated ( the 1980s called -- they want their slogan back ) , it is far too simplistic to describe both current drug policy and its outcomes . The latest incarnation of this ill-advised saying can be found in a report arguing that since cannabis and heroin prices have fallen while their purity has increased , efforts to curb drug use and its supply are doomed to failure . This leads some to highlight the possibility of alternatives in the form of `` regulation '' ( e.g. , legalization ) of drugs . But a closer look at the data -- and the implications for a policy change to legalization -- should give us pause if we care about the dire consequences drug addiction has on society . Globally , drug use has been stable over the past decade , though it is difficult to paint such a broad brush across countries and substances . But in the U.S. alone , there has been a 40 % drop in cocaine use since 2006 and a 68 % decrease in workplace positive cocaine tests . Overall in the U.S. , all drug use has fallen by about 30 % since 1979 . There are likely numerous reasons for this drop , but we ca n't ignore the fact that the world 's top supplier of the drug -- Colombia -- has greatly improved its security situation over the same period . With help from the United States , Colombia has managed to reduce the amount of land dedicated to coca growing by nearly two-thirds from 2000 to 2010 . Potential production of cocaine has also fallen more than 60 % , though in places without such security enhancements -- namely Bolivia and Peru -- cocaine production has picked up . Still , this shows that progress is not only possible , it is happening . As for the opiates and cannabis , trends vary widely in different regions around the world . While critics are right to say that prices have fallen while potency has risen generally , globally the picture is much more mixed ( the global cultivation of poppy has actually fallen since 1997 worldwide ) . In policy analysis , the key question that must follow any sentence that says `` X policy is good/bad '' is : `` Compared to what ? '' Some have offered legalization as a possible alternative . But we know from our experience with currently legal drugs -- prescription drugs ( which are now the leading cause of accidental deaths in the U.S. ) , alcohol and tobacco -- that legality means commercialization , normalization and wider access and availability that lead to more use and addiction . Legalization in the United States is likely to accompany a bombardment of promotion , similar to our other three classes of legal drugs . These industries will stop at nothing to increase addiction since their bottom line relies on it . In fact , we know that 80 % of the profit from addictive industries comes from the 20 % of users who consume most of the volume of the substance . According to internal documents that the government forced Big Tobacco to release during its historic court settlement , those companies are ready to pounce on the golden opportunity of drug legalization . It is no wonder that the parent company of Phillip Morris , Altria , recently bought the domain names `` AltriaCannabis.com '' and `` AltriaMarijuana.com . '' If this sounds frightening , it should be . Big Tobacco tried for decades to conceal the harms of their drug , and millions of lives were lost as a result . We are naive to think that this would n't happen with any other drug that is legalized . Where does that leave us ? That legalization is not a solution does not mean we have to be content with the status quo . Proven interventions such as community-based drug prevention efforts , drug treatment courts , offender re-entry programs and probation reform should be more robustly implemented and taken to scale . It is shameful that the richest country in the world ca n't figure out a way to make drug treatment available to all who need it , and we must stop relying on incarceration to deal with the drug problem . Interestingly , though , according to criminologist Mark Kleiman , if all drug prisoners were released tomorrow , we would still have four times the number of people in prison than our historical incarceration rate instead of five . That tells me that the root causes of drug use , trafficking and crime , must be seriously tackled . On the other hand , legalization -- especially in ad-obsessed America -- would not only sweep the causes of drug use under the rug , it would open the floodgates to more addiction , suffering and costs than we could ever bargain for . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Kevin Sabet .
A report says cheaper , purer illegal substances suggest war on drugs is failing . Kevin Sabet : Actually , global drug use has been stable over the past decade . The UN estimates that in 2010 there were about 100 million illicit users worldwide. Sabet : Legalization means companies will try to increase addiction to make more money .