With drug-related violence on the rise in Mexico, U.S. and Mexican officials are increasingly clashing over how to wage the country’s intensifying war on drugs.

A rise in drug use in Iran is one overlooked consequence of the surge in opium production in the Taliban-run provinces of southern Afghanistan.

Under President Alvaro Uribe's "democratic security" initiative, data suggests security in Colombia has improved significantly. But the country remains the world's biggest producer of cocaine, the rebel group FARC controls many rural areas, and paramilitaries show signs of regrouping.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, celebrating its five-year anniversary summit, has blossomed into a full-fledged security alliance, as well as a foil to U.S. influence in Central Asia.

Has the once ballyhooed U.S. "war on drugs" been put on the policy backburner? Many experts think it has, and also that this might be a good thing.

A RAND Corporation team assesses the effectiveness of recent U.S. drug policies.

Despite the growing severity of the drug abuse problem in the United States and evidence that supply-control programs are ineffective, the supply-side approach to drug control has endured. This task force examined interdiction and source country programs in terms of their impact on the domestic availability of the targeted illicit drugs. The group's report, Rethinking International Drug Control, urged policymakers to reassess the effectiveness of interdiction and the certification process, and to consider adopting a strategy that focuses on strengthening democratic institutions at home and abroad, developing multilateral drug-control efforts, and reducing domestic demand.