War on Drugs and Increasing Prison Population

From this chart it is clear that the since President Nixon launched the war on drugs it has been an utter failure. Not only are we locking up more people for non-violent behavior but preventing them from being productive members of society. It is really sad to lock people up who are really going about their own business and not harming anyone else. If anything I would argue that Twinkies are much more dangerous than drugs. I remember going through the now defunct D.A.R.E. program in elementary school and learning about alcohol and just saying no. However, I honestly believe this program made people want to try alcohol and drugs more. People forget that alcohol is much more dangerous than most if not all drugs. Every day people die in car accident from drunk driving. I have yet to see an epidemic of people dying from using illegal drugs. Also what about the medical benefits. Many people suffer from chronic illnesses could be using these drugs to help their symptoms. Making the drugs illegal makes it harder to study the very drugs that can help people. The true test of whether people own their own bodies is if they can do with it as they please (as long as they don't harm other people).