Now it's a monster and will not obey...

Your contention that taxes don't have an impact on consumption seems out of line with the evidence. Cigarettes have been taxed more severely than alcohol and their usage, in combination with education funded by those taxes, has decreased significantly in the U.S. over the past 50 years. Taxation, treatment and education have been far more effective than the "war on drugs" has ever been. Most of the well researched articles I have read acknowledge that legalizing drugs won't work overnight to eliminate organized crime but it has been shown that over the course of a couple of decades in tends to dramatically reduce their power. Do some reading about the mafia in the U.S. and their dramatic increase in power during prohibition and then subsequent decline in influence over the following decades after prohibition. They still exist and commit crimes but their power no longer overshadows that of law enforcement agencies.