Hitting the frontline: UK drug reformers move to Mexico
British drug reformers are opening an office in Mexico City, in a bid to capitalise on a sea-change in attitudes towards narcotic prohibition in Latin America.
Transform, which campaigns for a more liberal and evidence-based approach to drugs, will open the new office amid spiralling violence in the Latin American capital, with 50,000 turf war deaths over the last four years.
"With countries in Latin America no longer willing to blindly support a war on drugs that has cost them so dearly, the region is rapidly becoming the crucible where global change is being forged," Lisa Sánchez said.
In a move which was unimaginable a few years ago, governments from Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Uruguay and Brazil are starting to adopt much more liberal approaches to drugs.
In some cases their ministers have voiced an intention to decriminalise certain narcotics, despite threats from the US.
Sánchez will be Transform's first Latin American programme manager to work with policymakers, groups and experts in Mexico.
