Violence sparked by Drug trafficking and high drug use cost countless lives across Latin America in 2011 depicting the incompetent regional anti-narcotics policies and reviving a legalisation debate.
This 'Grass' is Not Green - Say, 'No Thanks, I Am Fine Without Drugs'
Illicit Drug Trafficking is a global problem. It has certainly ‘graduated’ from being an ‘American malady’ to a global nuisance, the world would be best without.
Illicit Drug Trafficking is a global problem. It has certainly ‘graduated’ from being an ‘American malady’ to a global nuisance, the world would be best without.
Over 45,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006 when President Felipe Calderon launched a major military crackdown involving 50,000 troops against the powerful drug cartels that have terrorized border communities as they battled over lucrative smuggling routes.
In Colombia, the world's top cocaine producer, authorities reported a major decline in coca cultivation and cocaine production, but also a fresh spike in killings attributed to narcotrafficking gangs that include ex-paramilitary groups.
Jailed Mexican Beauty No More A Queen
Laura Zuniga, the 23-year-old Mexican beauty queen arrested in the company of heavily armed, suspected drug traffickers, has been stripped of her crown,
Laura Zuniga, the 23-year-old Mexican beauty queen arrested in the company of heavily armed, suspected drug traffickers, has been stripped of her crown,
And Colombia's Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) continued to finance its guerrilla operations through drug trafficking as did remnants of the leftist Shining Path rebels in Peru.
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Cocaine Use Doubles in Mexico in Six Years
Cocaine use doubled in Mexico in the six years to 2008, the health minister said Friday, arguing that tougher border controls on smuggling has pushed more of the drug into the domestic market.
Cocaine use doubled in Mexico in the six years to 2008, the health minister said Friday, arguing that tougher border controls on smuggling has pushed more of the drug into the domestic market.
In poor barrios across Latin America, bloody battles for control of cocaine derivatives such as "paco" in Argentina and "bazuco" in Colombia raged on.
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Sinaloa Turf Claimed by Zetas in Mexico�s Drug War
The increasingly powerful Zetas are likely responsible for 50 people’s killing in strongholds of the rival Sinaloa cartel in western Mexico, while the years-long drug war continues, analysts say.
The increasingly powerful Zetas are likely responsible for 50 people’s killing in strongholds of the rival Sinaloa cartel in western Mexico, while the years-long drug war continues, analysts say.
In June, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which includes several Latin American ex-presidents and international figures such as Arbour and former UN chief Kofi Annan, published a report urging a thorough rethink of anti-drug policy.
Calling the global war on drugs a costly failure, the report called for an end to "the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but do no harm to others."
There are an estimated 250 million drug users in the world, according to UN estimates. "We simply cannot treat them all as criminals," the report added.
It recommended that governments try new ways of legalizing and regulating drugs, especially marijuana, as a way to deny profits to drug cartels.
On the health front, the drug war has indeed been a patent failure, with world consumption of opiates up 34.5 percent, cocaine up 27 percent and cannabis up 8.5 percent between 1998 and 2008, according to the commission.
And Arbour warned that the drug trade was also undermining weak states, particularly in Latin America and west Africa.
"Dealing with drug trafficking through war instead of as a public health issue was a mistake which claimed thousands of lives in Mexico and other countries," said Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, founder of a "victims' movement".
On November 21, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos also called for a "frank and open debate" on the issue.
Advocates of drug legalization insist that decriminalizing drugs has no significant impact on consumption.
But experts see little hope of an immediate change in the regional drug picture, citing the lack of political will in the United States, which is responsible for 36 percent of global cocaine consumption.
"There is no interest in taking this on, but there is agreement that the current approach is not working, privately, especially among members of (the US) Congress," said Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank focusing on Western Hemisphere affairs.
"An election is coming up and people are not going to take risks on a politically sensitive issue," he added.
Source-AFP
