US drugs tsar John Walters has admitted that Washington's anti-narcotics policy in Latin America has so far failed.

Mr Walters said in Mexico that billions of dollars of investment over many years have failed to dent the flow of Latin American cocaine onto US streets.

"We have not yet seen in all these efforts what we're hoping for on the supply side, which is a reduction in availability," he said in Mexico City.

But he predicted positive results would be seen within a year.

Mr Walters was speaking just after he had visited Colombia.

His comments can be seen as an admission that the so-called Plan Colombia has been a failure.

This initiative to wipe out drug smuggling gangs and eradicate coca crops has seen the Colombian government become the third largest recipient of US military aid in the world.

While praising Mexico's efforts to combat the drugs trade, Mr Walters also said that there'd been no notable disruption in the supply of drugs to the US.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3540686.stm

****
Wow. That's something I didn't know.

If the governments of the world were smart, they would legalize all drugs and then sell them to make money. People using them would have to agree to go to treatment. Nobody wants violence. They want the drug. Violence only comes from being illegal. How many "Plan X" do they have? They don't work!!

Its about time some one in the gove si willing to admit this war on drugs is long lost and a joke. treatment is far better and much more effective.

The drug war which is a disaster so many ways, ruining lives, enriching cartels and corrupt governments, infringing on freedoms, wasting billions. The problem isn't in Columbia, the problem is in Washington DC.