Giving Compass' Take:

· Jeffrey A. Singer explains that drug prohibition has led to a more dangerous underground trade and why more countries are beginning to decriminalize all drugs and bring this issue to light.

· How is philanthropy helping to fight the War on Drugs? What else can be done? Are we close to an end?

· Here's more on the War on Drugs and how we are tackling drug-related deaths.

The War on Drugs is not only fought on the home front. In fact, it is the longest running world war. While Portugal has decriminalized all drugs, Uruguay never criminalized personal drug use and possession, the Czech Republic has decriminalized possession of small amounts of illicit drugs, and Norway and Mexico contemplate decriminalizing all drugs, the world-wide war on drugs continues apace. And drug prohibition’s futility and destruction are on world-wide display.

I have written about the resurgence of methamphetamine use and methamphetamine related overdose deaths in the US, despite state and federal efforts to solve the “meth crisis” earlier in this century. Now comes a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime that Southeast Asian gangs are making $60billion (US) per year flooding Asia with methamphetamine, and laundering the money through Southeast Asian casinos.

Most of the methamphetamine originates in the “Golden Triangle,” the region where the borders of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand converge. The Northern Shan State in Myanmar is a hub of clandestine meth-making, but it is best known as a center of heroin production and distribution.

Read the full article about the War on Drugs by Jeffrey A. Singer at the Cato Institute.