Jack of Harts

The important thing to understand about the Drug Wars is that they did not end drug use in the Americas. They did not even end the drug cartels or kill all of the Drug Lords. Many escaped the scorched earth campaign that wiped out their fellows. It also did not end government corruption or otherwise build a new utopia on the bones of Old Mexico and the drug cartel leadership. The Americans had learned in previous decades that swarming in and attempting to build perfect new nations on the bones of old ones did not work, so they did not try. Their goal was to destroy drug cartel power in Mexico and find locals willing to build local governments that the Americans could leave behind when they were done. They took great care in attempting to water that idea everywhere they went.