"People say it failed without recognizing how bad the crack epidemic was, and is currently only a shadow of what it could be had it been left unchecked."
How exactly was it checked?
It's never been hard to buy crack if you wanted it, and for every dealer busted 2 more would move in to take their place.
I've yet to see evidence that the drug war did anything except for ruining a whole lot of lives and make some people very rich.