(BBC) A panel of the US House of Representatives wants to establish a commission on illicit drugs because of concerns that American policy isn’t working.

Democratic Representative Eliot Engel, who proposed the idea, said that billions of US taxpayer dollars have been spent over the years to combat the drug trade in Latin America and the Caribbean.

But he complained that positive results are few and far between. A House sub-committee heard that illicit drug flows were shifting eastward toward the Caribbean, as drug smuggling flights from Venezuela to Haiti and the Dominican Republic increased 167% in 2006 and 38% in 2007.