Since the War on Drugs began, most of the battle has been concentrated in Latin America, leaving traces of devastation from deep within Latin America to largest drug user those substances. After years of fighting and a series of increasingly aggressive policies implemented by the United States, drugs are as widespread, if not more so, than when the war began. Illegal drugs are still easy to obtain, the demand for them has skyrocketed, and the cartels are getting richer and richer. Since 2006, drug-related violence has claimed the lives of more than 60,000 people. Clearly, our current policies in waging this war are not effective, we spent over $35 billion during 2013 attempting to fight drug cartels and decrease the amount of violent crime that occurs due to cartel influence . Central American countries began to be plagued by drug trafficking, even Costa Rica, which does not have a standing army, began to see the violence that the cartels bring with them. Several countries have renounced this war in an attempt to adopt an alternative approach, pacification. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos supports the decriminalization of cocaine, and Guatemalan President Otto Fernando Pérez Molina has said he is open to legalizing and transporting the drug throughout Guatemala. Guatemalan leaders have convened a summit to address the potential of a unified approach to drug trafficking. Due to pressure from the US government, most countries withdrew from this summit, which took place in 2012 in the presence of Guatemalan, Colombian and Panamanian officials. El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua were expected to attend, but withdrew under pressure from… middle of paper… their own group. They collaborated extensively with the Sinaloa Cartel. They control the small but geographically significant area of ​​Tamaulipas from Matamoras to Reynosa. The Gulf Cartel is often seen as the "white knight" group as it does not brutalize the surrounding population as Los Zetas do, and as the Sinaloa Cartel also tends to do. Many cartels across Mexico are enemies, seeking to hang on to their market share and willing to fight to the death to keep it. Money laundering is something that is used quite often to minimize any complications regarding sums of money changing hands. Even if the United States' "War on Drugs" works, unless there is an international policy to address drug trafficking and the groups it is linked to, it will have no lasting impact on the cartels' ability to make a killing. . out of it.