I really don't understand the title of this article. The whole interview in the article describes how things come in waves, and that Cocaine happens to be in a trough at the moment:

| Are you saying cocaine’s bled itself dry?

I think so. ‘Til next time( my emphasis ). The country forgot the first cocaine epidemic about 50 years after it ended; the same could happen again, but not in this half-century.|

The whole article comes off to me as proof that the drug was IS un-winnable. The fact that new generations forget the dangers of previously popular drugs, combined with the creation of new drugs (as minimum_wage mentioned), creates a situation where you spend money and manpower on a bloated, reactionary force that (generally unsuccessfully) attempts to play whack-a-mole with various powerful drug lords.

The solution is, and always has been education and treatment. Educate people from a young age on the effects of dangerous drugs and addiction on your body and brain chemistry. Don't treat addicts like pariahs and lepers, but give them the help that they need to overcome their chemical addictions and get them back on their feet.

it also wouldn't hurt to sort the wheat from the chaff and figure out what drugs are problematic enough to be worth policing and which drugs should be controlled and taxed (like alcohol and tobacco).