President-elect Obama’s selections of Cabinet members and other officials, as well as his remarks more generally, so far suggest a strong pragmatism. Here’s another way he could exercise it: Review our crazy “war on drugs.” Save lives and save money.

Especially review Plan Colombia, which despite $6 billion spent and the laying waste of some Colombian countryside, has done nothing to reduce the availability of cocaine in the U.S. Indeed, the street price has fallen.

Meanwhile, the jailing of drug offenders has led the United States to have among the highest incarceration rates in the world — to the tune of about $35,000 a year per inmate.

If we dealt with this as the health problem it is, then we’d spend $4,000 a year per user to get them off the stuff instead of jailing them. It’s much cheaper to help those at the receiving end of drugs than to try to intercept all sources of supply. Still, this system continues, not only because of concerns about the damage caused by drug abuse but also because of pressures from groups that benefit from the vast spending on this “war.”

Ending Plan Colombia would save billions at a time of exploding deficits, and with considerable benefit to society.