A report prepared by former policymakers from the United States and Latin America called on the incoming Obama administration to reevaluate American counternarcotics policy in Latin America, calling the war on drugs a failure, the New York Times reported Nov. 23.

Thomas Pickering, co-chairman of the commission that produced the report and a former U.S. undersecretary of state, noted that drug traffickers have moved their operations farther into the jungle in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, making the current approach to drug eradication less successful. While efforts to control drug production must continue, Pickering said, the U.S needed to stem demand at home.

The report from the Brookings Institute cites the unchanged number of heroin and cocaine addicts in the U.S. since the mid-1980s as indicative of a failure to reduce production, and the ineffectiveness of drug prevention and treatment programs.

Ernesto Zedillo, the former president of Mexico and the report's co-chairman, said drug trafficking had spread throughout Latin America and should not be considered endemic to Colombia, Mexico or Bolivia.

The report also suggested a renewed approach to foreign policy in Latin America that would include normalizing relations with Cuba and Congressional approval of free-trade agreements with Colombia and Panama.