Breaking bad in the Middle East and North Africa: Drugs, militants, and human rights (Vanda Felbab-Brown, Harold Trinkunas, Sultan Barakat, Brookings)

This April, the U.N. General Assembly will meet for a Special Session on the World Drug Problem. After decades of conformity with a hardline “war on drugs” formerly promoted by the United States, there is increasing dissensus within the international community about how to best address the costs and harms posed by drugs. For years, some European countries have quietly diverged from policies based on aggressive suppression of drug production and the criminalization of users. More recently, some key Latin American states have openly challenged the global counternarcotics regime and called for reforms.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2016/03/22-drug-policy-middle-east-felbabbrown-trinkunas-barakat