Brazil's Drug Problem Shaping Foreign Policy

Two years ago, former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso led the call for a "paradigm shift" in the country's drug policy. Instead of squelching supply through policing, Cardoso advocated for reducing demand by treating drug abuse as a public health issue. But deeply entrenched prohibitionist policies are hard to repeal, and it appears that Brazil not only remains committed to treating drugs as a problem for the police, it is also in the process of becoming the first country in Latin America whose drug use is pushing it to adopt a more aggressive foreign policy towards its neighbors.