What he is saying is in support of your point. Those gangs are actually at war. They're fighting over money and control, directly enlisting soldiers and killing each other. Calling a prohibition "The War on Drugs" is a new speak tactic that not only takes the public eye off of real problems, but also waters down the impact the word WAR has.

This produces 2 less that awesome situations:

It is because of the prohibition called "The War on Drugs" that a real war fueled by drug money is out of control.

Because of the over use of the word, it's now harder to distinguish between what is a war and what is not a war.

TLDR: You can't have a war on a concept. It logically and literally makes no sense.