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Nobel Prize winner requests rethink on drugs war

A Nobel Peace Prize winner has asked for the world to have a rethink about the war on drugs in his acceptance speech.

Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia, claimed that the current zero-tolerance policy could be causing more harm than all the other conflicts being fought across the globe today. In a speech covering several topics, including the recent peace deal the Colombian government made with the rebel group, the Farc, Mr Santos said that it was time for a change of strategy on drugs. He added that Colombia had ‘paid the highest cost in deaths and sacrifices’ in the war on drugs.

The ‘war on drugs’ is a term first used by President Nixon when the US were making efforts to stem the tide of drugs at their source. In Latin America, this strategy led to street policing and air fumigation of coca fields.

Mr Santos said, “We have moral authority to state that, after decades of fighting against drug trafficking, the world has still been unable to control this scourge that fuels violence and corruption throughout our global community. It makes no sense to imprison a peasant who grows marijuana, when nowadays, for example, its cultivation and use are legal in eight states of the United States.”

Mr Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the achievement of the peace deal with the Farc, despite more than half of voters rejecting his nomination, in a referendum held in October.

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