Legalization used to be the rallying cry of stoners alone. Not anymore.

In Latin America, leaders seem to be reaching a new consensus about the drug war: it has failed, and it's time for a new solution. 

Most say that foreign demand for cocaine and marijuana is the underlying problem. 

If American, Europeans and others stopped buying the drugs, the vast black-market for the trade wouldn't exist. The drug traffickers wouldn't be able to charge huge profits, and they wouldn't be able to afford the massive weaponry and build the network of informants, enforcers, dealers and mules that allow them to sustain their production and distribution supply chain.

But you can't exactly presto demand away. Unless, the reasoning goes, you just legalize the drugs. Sell them over the counter for a reasonable price. Undercut the illegal market. Give the farmers who grow the stuff good jobs, free of fear, and give governments a share in the drug profits by taxing them. 

It's by no means a perfect solution. 

But the fact that two of the more influential presidents in the region — whose countries have been some of the most affected by the drug violence that has escalated amid the cartels' growing power — gives the idea new credence.