A U.S. warship capable of deploying more than 1,000 military personnel and dozens of helicopters is headed right for Costa Rica’s peaceful Caribbean coast. In July, Costa Rica's legislative assembly approved a U.S. request for permission to dock 46 warships and 7,000 military personnel, mostly for narcotics missions in Costa Rican territory, sparking outrage among skeptics of the global war on drugs, including outspoken politicians, pacifists, student groups and everyday "Ticos", who are proud of their country’s six decades without a military. In short, it’s been an outright public relations disaster.

According to federal Health Department data, across the U.S., cocaine and marijuana use have been static since 2002. But New York is a hot-bed for drugs, and Manhattanites are particularly heavy users. A review of drug-test data compiled by drug testing firm Sterling Infosystems shows that cocaine is losing its favor among investment professionals, and is being replaced by marijuana.

Prohibition lasted from 1920 to 1933 and is now considered a failed experiment in social engineering. Alcohol and marijuana prohibition have much in common: both in effect handed production, sales and distribution of a commodity in high demand to criminal organizations, both filled the prisons (America's population behind bars is now the world's largest), both diverted the resources of law enforcement, and both created millions of scoff-laws. Many prominent people think there is reason to believe that we are at the beginning of the end of the drug war as we know it.

“No patient left behind” is the mantra of the Denver-based Medical Marijuana Assistance Program of the Rockies (MMAPR). Working with indigent, low-income patients, MMAPR has launched a mobile doctors service, bringing doctors to the patients themselves. Through the support of local dispensaries and other medical marijuana industry businesses, MMAPR is able to not only provide convenient doctor visits, but also significant savings to patients, often as much as 25 percent.

A record number of homicides in Mexico has forced President Felipe Calderon to open discussions on a new strategy in the war on drugs: legalization. The impact of violence is the biggest threat to the Mexican economy according to 57 percent of Mexican executives, a survey published last month by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu showed. Mexico, which spends about $8.2 billion annually on law enforcement, would save between 5 percent and 15 percent of GDP if narcotics were legal in all countries, said Luis Rayo, a finance professor at the University of Utah.