The statement by the United Kingdom's deputy prime minister, Nicholas Clegg, once again calls into question the strategy of former Mexican president Felipe Calderon in his famous "war on drugs," which plunged the country into an escalation of violence that has been going on for 13 years and which three presidents have tried to contain. According to the former British official and currently Vice President of Global Affairs and Communication for Facebook, Calderon himself admitted in a private meeting in 2011 that the only possible way out was legalization.

Clegg -who is also a member of the Global Drug Policy Commission- revealed to Vice News that on March 29, 2011, during a visit to Mexico City, Calderon told him: "Do you think there will ever be a regulated sale of drugs in the United Kingdom or in the U.S.?

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"Because I have come to the conclusion - and I remember him saying it with such emotion - that we have spent years trying to carry out this war on drugs that cannot be won. You will never win unless you can strangle criminality by moving toward drug regulation," Calderon allegedly told Clegg.

"It made a huge impression on me. It really shocked me. He was someone who had really gone through the war on drugs, and had come to the conclusion that it was never going to be won," the Brit added.

Until now, Calderón has always defended his frontal combat strategy against the cartels. In addition, to the criticism of the enormous levels of violence, which increased in those years (2006-2012), he has responded that the murders rose due to the confrontations between criminal groups, not because of the security forces.

According to Vice, in a dialogue with his editors, Calderón did not deny having said that phrase, although he explained that while alternatives such as market regulation should not be discarded as a method to stop violence related to drug trafficking, "I have not openly proposed legalization because I am not sure about it.

"It is necessary to act responsibly, which means that studies must be done first, on the social and economic consequences, some of which could be disastrous for societies," concluded the former president.