Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy

The Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy was a panel of Latin American leaders and intellectuals, co-chaired by former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazil), César Gaviria (Colombia) and Ernesto Zedillo (Mexico).

In March 2009, the commission issued a report which "declared the war on drugs a failure," according to one commentator. The commentator drew parallels with the Prohibition in the United States and also reviewed signs of relaxing attitudes toward drugs prohibition in 2009. Another commentator cited Jeffrey Miron of Harvard's work on the subject, Senator James Webb's call for a commission on the subject, and a study by Glenn Greenwald about Portugal's policy of decriminalization published by the Cato Institute while also supporting in general the conclusions of the Latin American Initiative.