The drugs problem in the Americas – An analysis of the OAS report

At the Sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, the presidents of the hemisphere’s 34 countries acknowledged the multidimensional nature of the drug phenomenon and the challenges it poses. Aware of the increasingly intense debate on the topic and the growing sense that there is a need to reform current policies and explore other alternatives, the heads of state and government said they had begun an “invaluable discussion on the global drug problem [and had agreed] on the need to analyze the results of the current policy in the Americas and to explore new approaches to strengthen this struggle and to become more effective.” They issued the OAS a mandate to that end.

The Report on the Drug Problem in the Americas is the tool for compliance with that agreement and mandate. Consisting of two different but complementary sections, the report includes a broad technical study of drug consumption, production, transit, commerce and the scope of the drug business in the hemisphere, and examines the public policies adopted to address the problems of public health, illegality and violence it causes, as well as its social and political impact on society. The study’s conclusions are called the Analytical Report. There is also a complementary Scenarios Report, which describes the situation not as it is, but as it could be. The scenarios, presented as a series of narratives with a time frame from 2013 to 2025, illustrate the possible outcomes of four different policy approaches which, although not mutually exclusive, emphasize different areas, such as security, legal reform of the international drug control system, reconstruction of the social fabric, and international conflict.

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