London--British business tycoon Richard Branson and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on Wednesday called for drug law reform, highlighting failures in Mexico as President Enrique Pena Nieto visited Britain.
"Drug violence had become endemic" in many parts of the world including Mexico, they said, citing 100,000 deaths in the country since 2006 when the government declared a "war" against drug traffickers.
"The status quo is a colossal con", they said, calling for drugs possession for personal use to be decriminalised, with those caught diverted into treatment, education or civil penalties instead.
Virgin tycoon Branson and Liberal Democrat party leader Clegg made the call in The Guardian newspaper and a talk at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs think-tank in London.
"By any standard, the global war on drugs has been an abject failure," they said.
"The criminal market continues to grow, driving unimaginable levels of profit for organised crime".
Efforts at reducing demand had been "fruitless", while gangs were "doing a roaring trade", they said.
"The problem simply isn't going away."
They said Britain should follow Portugal, which decriminalised drugs use in 2001, a move that health experts credit in part for the decline in drug addiction.
The Portuguese "have allowed resources to be redirected towards the treatment system, with dramatic reductions in addiction, HIV infections and drug-related deaths," said Clegg and Branson.
Clegg, who leads the centrist junior partners in Britain's coalition government, said the Liberal Democrats would pledge a Portuguese-style approach in their manifesto at the May 7 general election, and shift responsibility to the health ministry.
AFP
