U.N. development chief flags failings of "war on drugs "

By Gabriel Stargardter

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - There is increasing evidence that the U.S.-led war on drugs has failed, with criminalization often creating more problems than it solves, said Helen Clark, the head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Speaking ahead of Thursday's presentation of the UNDP's 2013 Human Development Report, Clark, a former Prime Minister of New Zealand, said Latin American leaders should be encouraged to develop different policies to tackle the drug scourge.

"I've been a health minister in my past and there's no doubt that the health position would be to treat the issue of drugs as primarily a health and social issue rather than a criminalized issue," Clark told Reuters in an interview.

"Once you criminalize, you put very big stakes around. Of course, our world has proceeded on the basis that criminalization is the approach," she added

Clark did not prescribe remedies to the Latin American governments but said they should "act on evidence," noting that she favored treating drugs as a public health problem.

In recent years, many Latin American governments have begun to openly challenge the forty-year orthodoxy of the U.S.-led "war on drugs" that seeks to stamp out the cultivation and distribution of drugs like marijuana and cocaine.

Frustrated by ceaseless bloodshed and a perception that the United States has not done enough to curb its own drug consumption, many leaders in the region are now speaking openly about the possibility of legalizing drugs.

In Mexico alone, more than 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since the start of 2007.

Supported by the United States, former President Felipe Calderon, who left office in December, launched a military offensive on drug gangs soon after taking office in late 2006.

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U.N. development chief flags failings of "war on drugs "