AKIPRESS.COM - The U.N. General Assembly gathered on Tuesday to rethink global strategy in the war on narcotics for the first time in two decades as activists, U.N. officials and world leaders cited an international trend towards more liberal drug laws, Reuters reported.

Despite broad agreement on the need to deal with the global drug problem, there are deep divisions among the 193 U.N. member states, with some favoring a shift towards decriminalization and a greater focus on reducing the harm caused both by narcotics abuse and the war on drugs.

A number of Latin American leaders say the aggressive war on drugs has failed, having killed or destroyed thousands of lives worldwide. They say there is an irreversible trend towards legalizing "soft drugs" such as marijuana.

Emphasizing that point, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto told the gathering his country would soon increase the amount of marijuana Mexicans are allowed for personal use and legalize marijuana for medical purposes.

"We should be flexible to change that which has not yielded results, the paradigm based essentially in prohibitionism, the so-called 'War on Drugs' ... (which) has not been able to limit production, trafficking nor the global consumption of drugs," he said.

This week's special U.N. session was called by Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia.

No major decisions are expected this week. But European and Latin American delegations and activists hope this week's special U.N. session taking stock of what many describe as the failed war on drugs can contribute to pushing the world a few steps closer towards a more liberal drug strategy that puts human rights and public health, not repression, at the center.

The General Assembly adopted a declaration on Tuesday that activists supporting more liberal drug laws found disappointing. They said it focused on the traditional approach of cutting off supply, not reducing the harm caused by narcotics and protecting human rights.