VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis condemned the legalization of recreational drugs as a flawed and failed experiment as he lent his voice to a debate that is raging from the U.S. to Uruguay.

Francis told delegates attending a Rome drug enforcement conference Friday that even limited steps to legalize recreational drugs “are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the desired effects.”

Likewise, Francis said, providing addicts with drugs offered only “a veiled means of surrendering to the phenomenon.”

“Let me state this in the clearest terms possible,” he said. “The problem of drug use is not solved with drugs!”