UN SUMMIT SET TO RETHINK DRUG WAR

COCAINE production has surged across Latin America and unleashed a
wave of violence, population displacements and corruption, prompting
urgent calls to rethink the drug war.

More than 750 tonnes of cocaine are shipped annually from the Andes
in a multibillion-dollar industry that has forced peasants off their
land, triggered gang wars and perverted state institutions.

Dozens of interviews with law enforcement officials, coca farmers,
refugees and policymakers have yielded a bleak picture of the "war"
on the eve of a crucial United Nations drug summit.

Almost 6000 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico last year,
an unprecedented level of mayhem that is showing signs of spilling
northwards into the United States. More than 1000 have been killed
already this year in Mexico.

The insatiable demand for cocaine in Europe and North America has
thwarted US-led efforts to choke supply and inflicted enormous damage
on Latin America, experts believe.

"Prohibitionist policies based on eradication, interdiction and
criminalisation have not yielded the expected results," said Cesar
Gaviria, Colombia's former president and co-chairman of the Latin
American Commission on Drugs and Democracy.

"We are today farther than ever from the goal of eradicating drugs."

The commission is urging a "paradigm shift" from repression to a
public health approach, including decriminalisation of marijuana.
Dismal statistics about coca cultivation, cocaine exports and murder
rates have amplified calls to replace a policy that dates back to US
president Richard Nixon with one that focuses on curbing demand.

The debate comes to a head tomorrow when ministers from across the
world convene in Vienna to forge a new UN approach to drugs.

The European Union and some Latin American countries hope to shape a
strategy based on "harm reduction" measures, such as needle
exchanges. But holdovers from the Bush administration are lobbying
Barack Obama to stick with the US emphasis on supply.