A United Nations special session met Tuesday to discuss global drug policy — the first U.N. meeting on the subject in nearly 20 years.
Global leaders debated an international trend toward more liberal drug laws, with countries across the board agreeing that the drug problem needs to be addressed, but deeply divided on how to do that.
A number of Latin American countries said an aggressive war on drugs has failed, leading to thousands of lives being destroyed worldwide. These leaders urged the U.N. to accept the trend to legalize soft drugs, while other member states such as Russia remained wary of the United States' push to regulate access to marijuana.