And The Drugs Won!

A panel of former government leaders have stated the obvious – The War On Drugs Has Failed.

The global war on drugs has “failed” according to a new report by a group of politicians and former world leaders.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy report calls for the legalisation of some drugs and an end to the criminalisation of drug users.

The panel includes former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the former leaders of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, and the entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.

The US and Mexican governments have rejected the findings as misguided.

The Global Commission’s 24-page report argues that anti-drug policy has failed by fuelling organised crime, costing taxpayers millions of dollars and causing thousands of deaths.

It cites UN estimates that opiate use increased 35% worldwide from 1998 to 2008, cocaine by 27%, and cannabis by 8.5%.

The United States alone has more of it’s population imprisoned than any other country in the world and much of that is drug related.  The majority of problems along the Mexican border is now related to drugs and Mexico itself is becoming a failed state.

We apparently learned nothing from the prohibition of alcohol which did little but create criminals.