Latin American Leaders Start Assessment of Drugs War

For a whole generation, the world has concentrated on a law and order approach to the control and eradication of production and transportation of narcotics and other drugs. It is clear that this so-called war has been fought with public support and hard military responses but has not yielded acceptable results. The state of affairs in Latin America alone today's shows that there is need to accept that the approach has been unsuccessful. It is encouraging that in spite of the fact that the public in many countries are not naturally drawn to legalization and regulation, it is possible to form a persuasive case that the "War on Drugs" has failed.

Jamie Doward captures the frustrations of Otto Perez Mollina of Guatemala who hopes to convince his colleagues at an upcoming summit to consider a new approach. To my mind, this conversation is required even if the results of the discussion would be difficult to sell as apolitical decision. I applaud this because many other leaders in the neighborhood have been making similar declarations in light of the toll on human life. the political risks to the leaders attending the conference are real but there is no greater evidence than four decades of a well-articulated approach that has created insecurity and militarized drug trade and production.  This fresh approach alerts one to the idea that ideology is sometimes responsible for demonstrably poor public policy.