The country I so adored.. gilded sunsets, single-file paths through the jungle leading to crystalline watering holes, cascades of water rushing down through the deep murky green, where sunlight barely made it to the forest floor, nopal cactus and century plants sending their prickly fruit up to the sky...meeting along an isolated trail a large group of machete-wielding men whose only greeting was "buenos"..freedom to romp and play and come of age in a completely unfettered way..for an ex-pat. To a certain degree the same was true for Mexican citizens who could manage to dodge familial responsibilities and live a carefree life of their choosing. But what of Mexico's current climate; if media reports are anything to go by there's a head rolling into every discotheque or town square, severed in the name of the "war on drugs"...initiated, you guessed it, in the US of A. The conflagration of billions of US dollars, hundreds of thousands of automatic weapons and Zeta-style organised criminality lies squarely at the feet of US drug-enforcement policy, both north and south of the Rio Grande. The US, which boasts the highest incarceration rate of any Western nation, is packed to the rafters with drug-users. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world, where cooler and less ideological heads prevail, steps are being taken to decriminalise illegal drug consumption. The example of Portugal comes to mind, where illegal drug use is treated as a public health issue, a medical condition that warrants treatment - not incarceration. As CBC Sunday Morning host, Michael Enright, pointed out on a recent show highlighting shifting drug-enforcement perspectives from around the world, it is becoming increasingly clear that many drug-enforcement officials are moving over to the de-criminalisation side of the equation. Anti-ing up the "war of drugs" in Mexico is more likely to edge Mexico ever closer to the narco-terrorist state of Colombia, where even its own citizens are afraid to venture out into the countryside. The war on drugs is, and can never be anything but, a complete failure, and an assault on human rights and dignity.