The issue in the US is that the "War on Drugs" actually had nothing to do with removing dangerous or illicit goods from the people.
See, in the 60's, the CIA began trading arms for cocaine with South America, and those bricks of cocaine were shipped straight to the US. A variant, known as crack (crack cocaine), was then peddled throughout poor and black communities. It was sold to people as a "cool, "fun" drug and a way for poor people to make quick money selling it on the street. Then, shortly after, Ronald Regan began the "War on Drugs" because of the rise in "dangerous drug interest".
In reality, this just gave law enforcement excuses to abuse black communities. If police officers "suspected" a young black man of possessing any amount of any illicit drugs (crack, marijuana, etc), they were thusly legally backed to beat, arrest, and steal any property the black man had on them. Police were protected by the law, thanks to the initiatives put in place by the "War on Drugs". This is part of the vitriol behind it in the US. Something like possession of marijuana is considered a 'victimless crime', because it does not require you impeding on someone else's rights. Yet, people who were caught in possession of things like Marijuana and Crack were receiving larger prison sentences than people who had committed crimes such as burglary and homicide. To top this off, in the US, you are legally allowed to exploit prisoners as slave labor, and since prisons were privatized, it incentivized putting away as many people for as long as possible.
So, the "War on Drugs" is a misnomer and a term purposefully used to obfuscate the real issue behind the matter.