The answer to those questions depends entirely upon your point of view.
Governments position is based on the premise that the drugs themselves are the problem, and the solution is to rid our society of drugs; is, has and will be, being fed to us much the same way a small child is fed their meal. If its the only food offered, it will eventually be swallowed.
For most of those involved in the war on drugs, as it exists, I have no doubt that the intent is honorable even if the methods are demonstrably ineffective. (Which falls right in step with the whole of our justice system!) On the other hand, those persons who make it their jobs to fuel the drug wars are, in my mind, the epitome of the human predator.
Those people are not your run of the mill neighborhood dealer. They are not the distributors who supply those dealers. Nor are they the persons who warehouse and wholesale drugs. Even the smugglers who actually bring the drug into our country are not the real culprits. And by extension neither are the drug lords, their henchmen, or any of the armies of little people who actually produce the drugs.
No, the real war lords are those people in power who make the production, smuggling, distribution and sales of drugs so economically attractive. The people who do those things are really just business men/women who are doing exactly the same thing as any other business man/woman is doing. They have recognized a need (want) and are filling it exactly the same way an automobile manufacturer builds, markets, distributes, sells and services cars; for the same reasons any other marketable product is manufactured and sold. It's simply business.
Of course if the laws of our land simply controlled the stuff rather than banned it, there would be no need for the violence, not to mention economic and/or social costs, that accompany the war on drugs. But that is a tall order to fill. Several reasons crop up immediately, not the least of which is that many people make a large amount of so called 'legitimate' money with things just the way they are.