Is the world's longest-running insurgency coming to an end? The Colombian government and the leftist guerrillas of the FARC have announced their first peace talks in a decade, but that's just the first step.
We review "Drugs, Insecurity, and Failed States: The Problems of Prohibition," a new book from the very establishment International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Coca production in Colombia ticked upward last year after four straight years of declines, the UNODC said in a new report. It's still way down from its peak, though.
coca eradication plane spraying herbicides in Colombia (wikimedia.org)
History is about to be made at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena this weekend. Hemispheric heads of state will discuss alternatives to the drug war and challenge the US prohibitionist model. This could be the beginning of the end.
spraying herbicide on the rain forest to kill coca crops (wikimedia.org)
Some Colombian congressmen want to decriminalize coca and marijuana production in a bid to drive down prices and encourage farmers to plant other crops.
statues of coca leaves adorn a small town plaza in Peru (photo by author)
No "Frankenfungi" for the drug warriors just yet -- we don't know enough about the dangers of using mycoherbicides to eradicate drug crops to be doing that, a panel of scientists from the National Research Council says.