With the total failure of the drug war causing many Latin American political leaders to publicly question the wisdom of prohibition, President Obama was forced to repeatedly address the issue this weekend at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia. Unfortunately, Obama did his best to quickly dismiss the topic with incoherent excuses.

With a growing number of Latin American leaders legitimately looking at legalization as a way to end the violence from the failed drug war, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, while meeting leaders in Mexico, tried to convince the region’s leaders that they should keep fighting the decades long war on drugs despite the horrible death toll it is causing.

Recently there has been a string of top government officials throughout Latin America calling for a serious look at drug legalization as the solution to the violence caused by huge illegal profits created thanks to prohibition.