United Nations Development Chief Flags Failings of 'War on Drugs' Gabriel Stargardter - Reuters
go to original March 14, 2013

UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark attends a ceremony for the MDG Brazil Award at Planalto Palace, May, 2012. (Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino)

MEXICO CITY - 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

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