War on drugs a global failure, London School of Economics says

Influential report says global efforts to fight drugs have failed, and a new approach is needed:
A number of influential economists advocated for a drastic change in the global war on drugs this week. (Pawel Dwulit/Canadian Press)

Five Nobel Prize-winning economists signed off on the 84-page report entitled Ending the Drug Wars: Report of the LSE Expert Group on the Economics of Drug Policy authored by leading drug policy experts and supported by political figures from around the world calling for drug law reform.

The authors offer compelling evidence that achieving a “drug-free world” based solely on a prohibitionist model is an expensive and wasted effort. According to John Collins, co-ordinator of LSE IDEAS International Drug Policy Project and editor of the report, the drug policy experts' recommendations show how the war on drugs is a failure requiring a "major rethink of international drug policies."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/war-on-drugs-a-global-failure-london-school-of-economics-says-1.2636263

As a retired prosecutor I agree with the conclusions of this report. The US has wasted money, lives, and time with the "war on drugs" when confronting addiction and dealing with addiction issues would have been much more successful.

In keeping with the global nature of the report, this from Montreal:
“Yet, Fischer said, the Conservative government has adopted a “more of the same” attitude, referring to the government’s adoption of mandatory minimum sentences and other tough-on-crime policies. Just Friday, the government published proposed regulations to “eliminate” illicit drugs from prisons by giving corrections officials authority to further restrict inmate visits and perform additional searches on inmates, staff, and visitors.
“They should be reacting (to this report) by categorically and un-ideologically reviewing and accepting that this approach has failed and to consider sensible alternatives,” he said. “I’m not talking about policy tinkering to try to touch up what we’re doing, but to fundamentally step away from this pretense that we can criminalize and police drug-use behaviour.”

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/national/Conservatives+urged+heed+reports+failure+global+drugs/9824536/story.html