Every time this issue comes up, it seems to polarize itself: either you have to believe that ending the "drug war" will largely solve America's incarceration problem, or, for some reason, you have to support the drug war.

I don't understand the logic. It does not follow from "ending the drug war won't solve our prison problem" that "we should maintain the drug war".

There is virtually no vocal user of HN that supports the drug war. In every thread about drugs on HN, you can safely assume the entire community agrees that the "War on Drugs" is toxic.