Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged on Thursday the start of an international debate on drug legalization, after stating that the policy of the Mexican president, Felipe Calderón is not working.

“When one looks at the results of Mexican president Calderón’s efforts, most will say it did not work. Too many people have been killed. The Drug Policy has to change, and we need to start with a debate and a discussion,” said Annan at the Brookings Institution.

Annan participated last year in the work of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, chaired by former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and advocated decriminalization. President Calderon, whose war against organized crime has killed more than 60 thousand Mexicans, recently asked the United Nations General Assembly for an open discussion on the topic.

Annan, who presented his autobiography in Washington, explained: “We have enforced the [drug] laws for decades, filling the prisons with young people whose lives were destroyed by drugs. We have to address this issue through education, health, and not with the brutal reaction”.

The Brazilian Commission on Drugs and Democracy has produced a report, released in April after 18 months of discussions, which concluded that marijuana is the illicit drug with less potential for harm. The document, which will to be delivered to the government in July, proposes an alternative way to combat the drug problem, since “achieving a world free of drugs” has proved to be an elusive goal.

The institution, formed by experts from various fields such as health, law, journalism, public security, athletism, social movements, among others, calls for an “honest debate” on the issue and the discussion on the regulation of marijuana, cultivation for personal, consumption and the decriminalization of its use. The report also cites the examples of Spain, Netherlands and Portugal, which adopted similar measures to those set by the Commission.

Carta Capital magazine discussed the report with the president of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and the Brazilian Commission on Drugs and Democracy, the doctor Paulo Gadelha, who advocates “depenalization” of the user, ie, it is still a crime, but no prison as punishment.

CartaCapital: The report proposes a new approach to fighting drugs. What would be the most appropriate way to deal with the problem?

To read the full text (in Portuguse), click here.

Former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria on Tuesday strongly criticized the United States’ approach to fighting drugs.

Cesar Gaviria highlighted the problems Mexico is facing handling its drug problem.

“Just putting all consumers in jail, as the U.S. does, is not a solution,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “You have to reduce consumption.”

In a wide ranging interview, Gaviria said the United States now has more people in jail for narco-trafficking or related crimes than there are prisoners in the whole of Europe.

“What you need to do with addicts and people who consume drugs is deal with them as a health problem, an education problem,” he said. read more