I've always been a proponent of teaching kids that drugs are bad, as opposed to the heavy-handed zero-yolerance angle. Perhaps it's working:

Remember the love drug? That's the nickname of the synthetic drug also known as ecstasy. It was hugely popular with young adults a few years ago, especially at dance parties called raves. In 2001, 12% of teenagers reported having tried it.

The love affair is now over. A survey out this week from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America shows that teen ecstasy use has dropped 25% in the past two years. The Partnership's findings jibe with those of the University of Michigan's annual study on drug use, which also reports a sharp drop in ecstasy's popularity.

The reason for the decline is simple: education. The medium: television. More and more kids now know that ecstasy is dangerous thanks to a message that is being hammered home on the tube. Armed with that knowledge, they're saying no.

The media campaign about the dangers of ecstasy has taken several tracks: public-service ads, TV documentaries and anti-ecstasy messages woven into the plots of regular TV shows. Fifty-two percent of teens report having seen an antidrug ad on TV, up from 32% in 1998.

I think the money spent on the drug war would be much better spent on education and training people what the true dangers of drugs really are. Putting a kid in jail for an ounce of weed is damaging to the kid and costs exhorbitant amounts of money.