NEW YORK -- Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina rose to power in 2011 on the promise of crushing organized crime. The former army general pledged high-security prisons, an increased police force and the deployment of soldiers in the fight against drug gangs, which have transformed Guatemala into one of the most violent places in the world.

But Perez Molina, in an apparent about-face, turned heads last year when he became the first sitting head of state to propose the legal regulation of illicit drugs in front of the United Nations General Assembly. The war on drugs has failed Central America, he said at the time, adding that legalization should be considered as an alternative way to combat drug-related crime around the world.

The Guatemalan leader on Thursday renewed calls for a new global strategy on drugs, one that emerges from an inclusive global discussion. He called on the United Nations to reassess international policy at a special session on drugs in 2016.

“Since the start of my government, we have clearly affirmed that the war on drugs has not yielded the desired results,” Perez Molina told the General Assembly. “We cannot keep on doing the same thing and expecting different results.”

In the face of the global drug problem, he said, leaders must seek innovative approaches to drug use, ones centered on public health and addiction prevention. Priority must be given to reducing the social violence associated with drugs and respecting human rights, he added. Perez Molina also lauded citizens in the states of Colorado and Washington for their “visionary decision” to approve measures last November legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.

“I think he correctly sees himself playing an historic role in the transition from the failed global drug-prohibition regime of the 20th century to a new 21st century global drug-control regime that minimizes the extraordinary costs and failures of the old approach,” Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, told Al Jazeera.

Earlier in the week, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos also pleaded with U.N. leaders to reconsider the strictly prohibitionist approach to fighting drug trafficking and consumption.

“Right here, in this same headquarters 52 years ago, the convention that gave birth to the war on drugs was approved,” Santos said. “Today we must acknowledge that war has not been won.”