Doug Menuez/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The White House is slamming a report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy that says the long running war on drugs has been a failure.



In the report, the commission stated, "The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. Fifty years after the initiation of the U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the U.S. government’s war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed."



The commission also recommended that certain controlled substances should be legalized.



However, the White House says legalizing drugs like marijuana remains a non-starter for the Obama administration.



The Office of National Drug Policy says the war is succeeding because overall drug use in the U.S. is about half what in was in the late 70s. The president's approach, the office says, focuses on drug addiction as a disease, providing treatment and on efforts to prevent drug abuse.﻿

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