Latin leaders push to end drug prohibition

The shooting took place a day before Otto Perez Molina's inauguration. Photo / AP

A meeting of Latin America's leaders, to be attended by US President Barack Obama, will hear serving heads of state admit that the war on drugs has been a failure and that alternatives to prohibition must be found.

The Summit of the Americas, to be held at Cartagena, Colombia, next weekend is being seen by foreign policy experts as a watershed in the redrafting of global drugs policy in favour of a more liberalised approach.

Otto Perez Molina, the President of Guatemala, who as the former head of his country's military intelligence service experienced the power of drug cartels at close hand, is pushing his fellow Latin American leaders to use the summit to endorse a new regional security plan that would see an end to prohibition.

Perez Molina wrote in the Observer: "The prohibition paradigm that inspires mainstream global drug policy today is based on a false premise: that global drug markets can be eradicated."

Perez Molina concedes that moving beyond prohibition is problematic.

"To suggest liberalisation, allowing consumption, production and trafficking of drugs without any restriction whatsoever, would be, in my opinion, profoundly irresponsible ... If we accept regulations for alcoholic drinks and tobacco consumption and production, why should we allow drugs to be consumed and produced without any restrictions?"

He insists, however, that prohibition has failed and that an alternative must be found.

Polls suggest the vast majority of Guatemalans oppose decriminalisation, but Perez Molina's comments will be studied closely by foreign policy experts who detect that Latin American leaders are shifting their stance on prohibition after decades of drugs wars that have left hundreds of thousands dead.

Mexico's President, Felipe Calderon, has called for a national debate on the issue. Last year Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia's President, said that if legalising drugs curtailed the power of organised criminal gangs who had thrived during prohibition, "and the world thinks that's the solution, I will welcome it".

Latin America's increasing hostility towards prohibition makes Obama's attendance at the summit potentially difficult. The Obama Administration, keen not to hand ammunition to opponents during an election year, will not want to be seen to be as softening its support for prohibition. However, US Vice-President Joe Biden has acknowledged that the debate about legalising drugs was now "legitimate".

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil and chairman of the global commission on drug policy, has said it is time for "an open debate on more humane and efficient drug policies".

- Observer