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http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2013/01/25/us-drug-policy-rankles-latin-american-leaders/

US Drug Policy Rankles Latin American Leaders

The legalization of marijuana also doesn’t prevent violence or curb cartels operating in drug producing countries, according to ONDPC. The agency’s research indicates that legalization would not dramatically reduce Mexican drug trafficking revenue, with the gross revenues to Mexico’s cartels from marijuana likely less than $2 billion a year.

Mexican and Colombian cartels combined total yearly profits are between $18 to $39 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Some drug policy experts argue that marijuana legalization in certain U.S. states makes the country look hypocritical because of the U.S.-led global war on drugs, which includes initiatives in the region to combat trafficking and the number of anti-drug agreements signed with Latin American countries in the past.

The U.S. has given over $7 billion to Colombia since 2000 through Plan Colombia – a program to combat trafficking and left-wing guerrillas – and in 2008 the U.S. provided Mexico with more than $1.5 billion in the Merida Initiative, with millions more going to fight drug cartels throughout Central America.

“To go against the treaties, I don’t blame the countries if they are angry,” said Calvina Fay, the executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation, based in Washington, D.C. “It’s very demoralizing to the leaders in Mexico who have to put their lives at risk.”

Some countries throughout Latin America have followed suit in the conversation of legalizing drugs. Uruguay considered a proposal to to legalize marijuana, while Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras and Belize last year called for an international debate on drug policy.

Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina has steadfastly pushed for a legalization as a way to reduce violence and crime in his country.

“It’s the first time that a president in power dares to say that other routes have to be found for the war on drugs,” Pérez Molina said in a Fox News Latino interview last year.