Winds of Change in the War on Drugs: An OAS Report That Won’t Gather Dust
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
A Colombian police officer stands guard near packs of confiscated marijuana in Cali March 26, 2013. According to authorities, narcotics police confiscated 7.7 tons (6985 kilograms) of marijuana that were transported in two trucks at a checkpoint in Valle del Cauca, which belonged to the sixth front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). They also said that 80 tons of marijuana have been seized so far this year. (Jaime Saldarriaga/ Courtesy Reuters)
It was half a century ago that UK Prime Minister Harold McMillan famously noted the “winds of change” buffeting the British Empire. Old verities were crumbling and Great Britain would need to adapt to a new political reality. Something analogous is happening today in the Western Hemisphere, where Latin American governments are rethinking their participation in Washington’s decades-long war on drugs. The latest evidence is a ground-breaking Report on the Drug Problem in the Americas, released May 17 by the Organization of American States (OAS). For the first time, the multilateral body is calling for a sober reassessment of the prohibition strategies the United States has backed since the Nixon administration. Read more »












