Is amnesty the answer for Mexico's bloody drug war? The country's likely next president thinks it might be

CHIHUAHUA, Mexico - The man expected to be Mexico's next president is considering a radical new approach in the country's long-running war on the drug trade: amnesty.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has a wide lead ahead of Sunday's presidential election, has said that if he wins he may push for a law allowing some nonviolent criminals to walk free.

"I will not rule out any option" to achieve peace, he said at a recent debate.

Forgiveness for even low-level workers in the country's multibillion-dollar drug industry would mark a dramatic shift from the militaristic approach that Mexico has long employed in its attempt to curb trafficking. With U.S. encouragement, Mexico has gone to war against the cartels, imprisoning drug users and drug runners, incinerating opium and marijuana fields, and sending