Dominican leader says global war on drugs ´ill-conceived´

United Nations.- The "humanitariandisaster of tens of thousands of deaths that has claimed the so-called waragainst drug trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean" should spurthe international community to rethink its policy against drugs, president DaniloMedina said Tuesday speaking before the UN General Assembly.

He called the figureson victims resulting from “in ill-conceived and poorly executed” policies “alarming.”

"A change ofdirection is needed, more updated and realistic, new international consensus toleave space for national governments to design policies suited to theircircumstances," said the Dominican president to world leaders.

During his recent participationin the VII Summit of the Americas, Medina had also suggested new measures tocope with the cost of combating drug trafficking.

Inequality andinsecurity

Medina also called the“world´s prevailing inequality” a breeding ground for the increasingly younger recruitsinto transnational crime and drug trafficking, stressing a correlation with insecurity.

“Many of thechallenges we face globally have their origin in inequality, also among them theviolence and insecurity that plague especially Latin America and the Caribbean."