"War on drugs"

Ernesto Zedillo in the book "Rethinking the “War on Drugs” Through the US-Mexico Prism" (2012) says:

Hopefully, the reader will find that notwithstanding the reservations expressed by some authors about the inconvenience of “rolling the dice,” the arguments and evidence presented at the conference on balance point very strongly in the direction of a serious reconsideration of the policy approach for dealing with the drug problem over so many years. The economic and human costs paid both in the United States as well as in the countries where the drugs come from, ques- tion in a profound way, the validity of such policies. The American colleagues who tell us that any significant change in the strategy is unlikely to happen in the United States essentially for political reasons may be right. But it doesn’t mean that those concerned, for good reason, about this problem should give up. On the contrary, the resistance to change should encourage more and better research and a bigger effort to foster a rational discussion of the drug problem. This e-volume aims to contribute towards these ends.

The book is available here.