The United States is dismissing as “silly” a new report that calls on governments to fight the use of illegal drugs by making some of them legal.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy says drug addiction is a disease that can be treated successfully. A spokesman with the agency says drug use in the U.S. is half of what it was 30 years ago.

The spokesman says the potential production capacity for pure cocaine in Colombia has fallen by almost two-thirds from 2001 to 2009, and that making drugs more easily available will just put more people and communities in danger.

The report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy recommends governments around the world fundamentally change the way they approach drug use

The panel of former world leaders includes ex-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, as well as former presidents of Colombia and Mexico .

The panel's findings will be officially presented Thursday in New York.

The report says the so-called war on drugs has failed to decrease the supply or consumption of drugs around the world with “devastating consequences” for individuals and communities.

It recommends governments make it legal for people who do not harm others to use marijuana and other drugs. It also calls for governments to provide treatment for drug addiction as a health service, and work to find a legal model that undermines the organized crime syndicates who sell the drugs.