Taking out the Cartels wont be a long term solution. New comers will take over and everything will be back to square one.
Lets say that the illegal drug industry is a 100 billion dollar industry annually: of those 100 billion dollars per year, at least 80 billion dollars stay in the US. This money goes back into the US economy as taxes, goods and services purchased, real estate, etc. Money aside, it creates 10s of thousands of jobs for government agencies as well as for people in the healthcare industry.
It would be a big blow to the economy if it were possible to stop the illegal drug industry, which is not possible.
The government has not been able to stop the drug trade within the US, what makes you think it could stop the drug trade in other countries?
There is only one solution to end the war on drugs and it is legalization, and it will happen eventually.