In a speech delivered at the Miami Herald’s Company of the Year Awards luncheon, Donald Trump condemned the “war on drugs” as “a joke” and called for the legalization of drugs. “We’re losing badly the war on drugs,” he said. “You have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars.” So reported the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on April 14, 1990.

Times change, but, to his credit, Trump was absolutely correct 27 years ago. Since President Nixon declared a war on drugs in 1971, the United States has criminalized millions of Americans, spent well over $1 trillion and enriched street gangs in inner cities across the country, violent drug cartels throughout Latin America and terrorist organizations worldwide. To date, it appears that people are still buying and using drugs, indicating that Trump’s idea of taxing drugs and using the proceeds to prevent abuse might’ve been a better idea.

Yet, 27 years later, Trump seems to have abandoned the realization that criminalization and aggressive law enforcement isn’t necessary to relieve social ills — and may, in fact, do more harm than good. He has, instead, adopted rhetoric of “law and order,” pandering to the interests of some in law enforcement willing to disregard constitutional principles in pursuit of dually quixotic and draconian responses to crime and drug use.

“We’re becoming a drug-infested nation,” he said Thursday during a press conference. “Drugs are becoming cheaper than candy bars. We’re not going to let it happen any longer.” Setting aside the candy bar claim, if the country is, indeed, becoming drug-infested, that is a sign that prohibition doesn’t work.

Any hope that Trump is secretly still harboring this understanding is dashed, however, when one hears his recent remarks. “We’re going to stop those drugs from poisoning our youth, from poisoning our people,” he said in a speech Feb. 8 before the Major Cities Chiefs Association. “We’re going to be ruthless in that fight. We have no choice.”

It’s difficult to tell what exactly Trump means when he says ruthless. President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has, to put it modestly, been “ruthless” with his war on drugs, going so far as to support an aggressive drug enforcement policy of killing thousands of people. Trump is probably not that ruthless, though it is worth noting that Duterte has yet to eradicate drugs from his society.

Just across the border, the drug war waged between the Mexican government and drug cartels since 2006 has potentially seen more than 100,000 deaths. Perhaps we’d have a better handle on drugs and illegal immigration if Latin American countries weren’t so destabilized by our prohibition. Unfortunately, Trump has touted his border wall as the true solution to both of these problems. Prisons can’t keep drugs out; his wall won’t, either.

Trump’s commitment to failed ideas also extends to one of the other unfortunate products of the war on drugs: civil asset forfeiture, a practice by which law enforcement agencies seize people’s property without obtaining a criminal conviction.

During a roundtable with county sheriffs on Feb. 7, Trump joked about ruining the career of a state senator in Texas who dared suggest law enforcement get a criminal conviction before engaging in forfeitures. According to the Institute for Justice, annual deposits to the Department of Justice’s Assets Forfeiture Fund hit $4.5 billion in 2014. Though some forfeitures follow a criminal conviction, between 1997 and 2013, this was true in only 13 percent of cases.

Taken together with Trump’s false claims about the homicide rate being the highest it’s been in 47 years (it’s near historic lows) and the bleak picture of America he pitched during his inaugural address, he has, unfortunately, committed himself to demonstrably bad crime and drug policy ideas based on false premises.

Sal Rodriguez is a staff columnist. He may be reached at: salrodriguez@scng.com.