Drug Legalization: Panel Calls War on Drugs a Failure

Global leaders ask for discussion of a new drug policy. The U.S. continues to turn a deaf ear. And where have we heard the "whack-a-mole metaphor before? Answer: the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. and the deputy director of the Drug Enforcement Agency)


Panel Calls War on Drugs a Failure - WSJ.com: "As spiraling drug violence kills thousands in Mexico and police battle gangs for control of Brazil's drug-infested slums, an international panel has concluded that the U.S.-led war on drugs is a failure.

'The global war on drugs has failed,' said a report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy due to be released Thursday. The report calls for a frank dialogue on the issue and encourages governments to experiment with the regulation of drugs, especially marijuana. ...

"Our minimum goal is to get the U.S. to discuss the problem in all its magnitude and not to lock itself up in a policy that has failed," said Cesar Gaviria, a former president of Colombia. "Mexico and Colombia must get the U.S. to debate. The belief that there is no alternative because of electoral reasons is not acceptable."

A spokesman for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy said U.S. drug policy wasn't a result of a "drug war" mentality and that its "balanced drug control efforts are making a big difference," including recent reductions in the use of drugs such as cocaine....

The drug war has been an expensive failure both abroad and at home, said Bruce Bagley, an expert on drug trafficking and Latin America at the University of Miami. Abroad, Mr. Bagley compared U.S. efforts to a massive game of whack-a-mole (AMB emphasis) in which drug supplies, drug violence and crime are "shuffled from one country to the other." He said that in the U.S. there is little or nothing to show for it "except for the warehousing of some 600,000 people a year on drug-related offenses in prison at huge cost.""