Representatives of nine Latin American countries, including ex-presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, have issued a report calling for a reevaluation of the “War on Drugs.” Among the other members of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy are conservative Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa and Paulo Coelho, the Brazilian author of the bestseller, The Alchemist. The report states that the U.S.-backed War on Drugs, created in the 1970s and based on eradication of production and criminalization of consumption, has failed. Consumption in Latin America is actually growing, and is increasingly accompanied by a ise in violence and the involvement of organized crime.