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The war on drugs should be declared over recommends the Global Commission on Drug Policy report. It says the policy of total prohibition followed by the world's most powerful nations for the best part of four decades "has not, and cannot, be won". Commentators mull over why governments have so far rejected the advice.

The this is not the first time the British government has ignored advice on drugs:

"The previous Labour government downgraded cannabis to class C status, but then promptly returned it to class B in order to curry favour with the right-wing press. In 2009 when the government's own drugs adviser, David Nutt, tried to launch a debate about the relative harm of various substances he was promptly sacked. This commission is to be commended for telling the truth about drugs prohibition and for making an admirably clear argument for a different strategy. The tragedy is that world leaders still show no inclination to listen."

that this report and the rejection of it is a case of history repeating itself:

"The modern system of international drug control began 50 years ago, with the creation of the UN Convention which is still its foundation. There were critics in 1961, too. But they were dismissed as naysayers.
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Years passed. The amount of money spent on the war on drugs soared. So did drug production, consumption, and distribution. Richard Nixon coined the phrase "war on drugs" and further ramped up drug control efforts. The drug trade kept growing. Ronald Reagan launched his war on drugs. Things got worse.
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On and on it goes. Occasionally there's a new wrinkle, like the advent of the AIDS epidemic, which most epidemiologists agree was made much worse by the criminalization of drugs. But for the most part, only the names change."

that regardless of the evidence ending prohibition of drugs is just too taboo for governments to consider:

"Fighting gangs and cartels whose capabilities span continents requires a subtlety not evinced by most governments. Ruthless crackdowns have not worked, only leading drug producing and smuggling outfits to find more subterranean means of operation, which create greater dangers for those who inevitably seek their product.
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"On a certain level, this all seems painfully obvious. But the report lashes out at a 'lack of leadership' at the highest level of governments around the world, where drug policies are still dictated by 'ideology and political convenience' rather than 'strategies grounded in science, health, security and human rights.' The first task, says the commission, is to 'break the taboo' that seems to encircle real discussion of mass-scale drug legalization and decriminalization. Judging from the initial White House response, though, that plea may go unheeded."

that the war on drugs may be too precious to politicians to give up:

"The arguments over drugs are done and dusted. Any independent body that looks at the evidence comes to similar conclusions. So why do political leaders refuse to countenance more than minor tinkering with the law, such as yo-yoing cannabis between classes B and C? One answer is that as Steve Rolles, senior policy analyst at Transform Drugs Policy, puts it, drugs have been presented as an existential threat and the war against them almost as a religious crusade. In the popular mind, drug users have always been demonised as what sociologists call 'the other': Chinese gangsters, Caribbean immigrants, 60s hippies or other threats to the social order. Anyone who proposes ending the war risks being characterised by opponents, particularly in the downmarket media, as weak and cowardly, lacking the Churchillian spirit of 'no surrender'. History does not look kindly on those who lose wars."

Finally, the writer of the TV series The Wire David Simon commenting that he would agree to the US attorney general's pleas to make another series if the US government would reconsider "dehumanising" drug prohibition:

"Evidence seems, overwhelmingly, to suggest that prohibition is not just failing to fix drug problems, it is aggravating them. Generally, in a liberal democracy, you need a reason to make things illegal, not a reason to legalise them. There is, it seems, no good reason not to take a long, hard look at our drug policy, at what really works, not what is merely politically expedient. It is a sad day when the writers of an (admittedly brilliant) TV police show have a better grasp of health and social policy than our politicians. Hopefully, if the US attorney general is that big a fan, he'll take up their offer to get hold of season six."