SAN DIEGO -- There is a group of people who believe the war on drugs cannot be won.

This group is growing in numbers each day and is asking for the legalization of drugs.

You might be surprised when you discover their background.

In the late 1920s, the radio was the favorite household item.

Charles Lindbergh completed his historic flight across the Atlantic and the crime rate in the U.S. rose dramatically as gangsters became richer and increasingly violent during Prohibition.

For 13 years, the federal government put up a fight -- a struggle that continued until Prohibition was repealed.

Almost 75 years later, there are people who suggest the country take a lesson from the past and put an end to the war on drugs.

“It is not working, because it can’t work. Prohibition we know can’t work. It never has, and it never will,” said Norm Stamper of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

Stamper is a former Seattle police chief and was a San Diego police officer for 28 years. He spent his entire career fighting the war on drugs.

He said the results were “misery, disaster and failure.”

“From my point of view and the point of view of many others in the law enforcement community, the drug war has caused more harm than good,” said Stamper.

According to the LEAP Web site, there are thousands of current and former members of law enforcement and criminal justice within LEAP like Stamper. The group even has an endorsement from Walter Cronkite.

Stamper said the group’s answer to the war on drugs is to “tax, regulate and control all drugs.”

“Doing that would give us an opportunity to seize all of those assets currently monopolized by drug traffickers,” added Stamper.

But is the legalization and federal regulation of drugs the answer to winning the war on drugs?

Dr. Cleo Malone of The Palavera Tree said, “This whole damn nation would just go crazy. It would be destroyed. I can't imagine it not being destroyed.”

For 26 years, Malone has run a teen recovery and treatment center in San Diego. He said he feared what would happen if drugs were available from government vendors.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, since 2001, there has been a 20 percent decrease in teen drug use. Roughly 800,000 fewer teens use drugs today than they did six years ago.

Former DEA agent Thom Telles said, “We haven't lost the war on drugs. I see us having success on the war on drugs. Maybe what we need to do is reprioritize our goals.”

Telles and other current DEA agents agreed that there is success, but the war on drugs is far from over, especially for a border division of the DEA.

For example, the number of super methamphetamine labs in San Diego County are down 73 percent, but 80 percent of those labs simply moved across the border to Mexico. That is why cooperation with Mexican authorities, especially in Tijuana, is so important.

“This battle, quite frankly, belongs to both of us. I wouldn't consider what we're doing in San Diego with the DEA so much a war, as a struggle,” said DEA Special Agent Dan Simmons.

On a typical day, 1,700 pounds of drugs are seized at ports of entry. Between the ports, almost 4,000 pounds are grabbed daily. Law enforcement officers are not able to get all of the drugs.

So, the issue is would ending the prohibition on drugs stop this and end the war? Or, do we have to work smarter and harder to win it?

San Diegans are fairly split over whether drug use should be treated as a crime.

In a 10News/Survey USA Poll, 51 percent said it should be treated as a disease, 46 percent thought it should be considered a crime and 4 percent were not sure.

View the complete survey here.