A commission made up of establishment figures including ex-Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, ex-GOP secretary of state George Shultz, and Virgin Group's Richard Branson has just issued a report declaring the nation's war on drugs, especially as it applies to Mexico, a failure.

"Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won," the report says.

"Law enforcement agencies and drug trafficking organizations can become embroiled in a kind of ‘arms race’, in which greater enforcement efforts lead to a similar increase in the strength and violence of the traffickers.

"In this scenario, the conditions are created in which the most ruthless and violent trafficking organizations thrive.

"Unfortunately, this seems to be what we are currently witnessing in Mexico and many other parts of the world."

Recommendation 3:

"Encourage experimentation by governments with models of legal regulation of drugs (with cannabis, for example) that are designed to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and security of their citizens"

We have the full report here:

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/documents/2011/jun/02/war-drugs-report/

But members of the Obama Administration, including Customs head Alan Bersin of San Diego, quickly moved to dismiss the recommendations, as reported earlier today by Fox News:

"Drug addiction is a disease that can be successfully prevented and treated. Making drugs more available -- as this report suggests -- will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe," Office of National Drug Control Policy spokesman Rafael Lemaitre told Fox.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/02/white-house-pushes-back-on-report-declaring-war-on-drugs-failure/#ixzz1O95lt3ct