Our 'war on drugs' has been an abysmal failure. Just look at Mexico

The west's refusal to countenance drug legalisation has fuelled anarchy, profiteering and misery
Simon Jenkins
The Guardian (UK)
Thursday, September 9, 2010

It is wrecking the government of Mexico. It is financing the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is throwing 11,000 Britons into jail. It is corrupting democracy throughout Latin America. It is devastating the ghettoes of America and propagating Aids in urban Europe. Its turnover is some £200bn a year, on which it pays not a penny of tax. Thousands round the world die of it and millions are impoverished. It is the biggest man-made blight on the face of the earth.