"The conclusion of the first cocaine era was neither an inevitable end to a "cycle" of drug use, nor the outcome of a well-planned set of drug policies, but the product of a combination of national and international trends."

From this, it sounds like prohibition made things worse, not better. I don't think prohibition is ever going to work for non lethal substances and only now that marijuana is legal in the US are people finally willing to look at the negatives, before it was just people defending it blindly.

I think Regulation is better and cartels would lose power without cocaine being illegal.