3. What proposals for drug law reform and reform have recently been received in the country? If you look at the factors driving the debate on drug reform in Europe, you can see that it focuses more on health, drug addiction and drug-related deaths. In Latin America, the security crisis linked to the illicit drug market seems to be fuelling the debate. 2. What are the current drug laws in Colombia? These substitution policies have not always been successful in the past. It will not work as long as there is a large global market for cocaine. Consumption cannot be stopped, no matter what we do. Drugs do not always lead to problematic use, overdose or death,“ adds Gil Pinzón, who considers it essential to destigmatize drugs. If cocaine were legal, people would have the choice of whether or not to use it, as with alcohol or tobacco. There are very few studies on the addition it produces. The huge sums of money allocated in weapons for the cameras, the researcher believes, could be used to study the effects of the substance to inform ± campaigns and access health services.
In 2011, the Law on Citizen Security was promulgated, which reformed the penal code and eliminated the exception not to punish the crime of transporting narcotics in quantities of personal doses. But despite opposition from the Attorney General`s Office, the decision not to allow minimum doses was confirmed. Once again, the Constitutional Court clarified in its judgment C-491 of 2012 that the personal dose remains decriminalised and that drug use continues to be understood as an activity protected by the right to free personal development. And he dropped another pearl: „He tried it for the first time when he served©© in the army.“ The meeting showed that although the project was not its author, but the liberal representative Juan Carlos Losada, the government played it to the fullest for the advancement of the proposal. Two ministers of justice and interior came from the Casa de Nariã±o to defend legalization and align their coalition so that the initiative does not suffer setbacks. In the retina of the country remained the recent speech of President Gustavo Petro at the UN, in which he spoke about the change in the world`s anti-drug policy. „Let`s talk about it: what happens if cannabis is legalized in Colombia without a license? Like planting corn, like planting potatoes,“ the leftist president said at a meeting with mayors in the southwest of the country, where illegal marijuana plantations abound. IC: This law aims to remove control of drug markets from criminal groups. Do you think the proposed policy can achieve this objective in Colombia? At the 2014 Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Colombia – along with a small group of Latin American countries – explicitly called for a review of current drug policies. It goes without saying how destabilizing the illicit cocaine market in Colombia has been in terms of strengthening organized crime and armed groups, exacerbating conflict and violence, promoting corruption and weakening governance. It has resulted in forced displacement, environmental damage and hundreds of thousands of deaths. It has been one of the main structural causes of many of the problems facing Colombia.
With the financial system and its strict controls against money laundering behind the back of the cannabis industry, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of all the money circulating. And the opacity of information sometimes opens the door to illegality. Added to this is the fact that, as Congressman Christian Garcãs© of the SEMANA Democratic Center explained, marijuana cannot be exported at this time. Dissidents of the peace pact that disarmed FARC guerrillas in 2017, ELN rebels and other armed groups are fighting for the proceeds of drug trafficking and other illicit activities in several regions of Colombia, which have recorded nearly 60 massacres so far in 2022. „Let`s bring people together (to discuss legalization). Even those who are armed arrive unarmed,“ the president said. Prisons are overcrowded. According to INPEC, at the end of 2013, 120,032 people were in prisons with a maximum capacity of 76,066 places.
About 15% of these persons are deprived of their liberty because they have committed drug-related offences (trafficking, manufacture or transport). Over the past decade, this type of crime has been one of four criminal modalities that feed the prison population in Colombia. IC: Does the legalization and regulation of coca and its derivatives necessarily mean the disappearance of the black market in Colombia? Concrete measures that support this trend are Senator Juan Manuel Galán`s plan to regulate cannabis for medical purposes, which has the public support of President Santos, and the decree of the Ministry of Health of May 12. November 2015 to regulate the production and consumption of marijuana for medical and medical purposes. In May 2016, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed Senator Galán`s bill regulating the medical and therapeutic use of marijuana. The bill had already been approved by the Senate. Colombia is the fourth country in Latin America to legalize medical marijuana. Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants composed of several subspecies. Also known as marijuana, this shrub of dark green color and strong aroma is surrounded by controversy for the psychoactive principles it contains. However, there are many other uses that are not related to drug use. To date, the Colombian state faces challenges regarding the control of its territory by various criminal actors, from former leftist guerrillas and paramilitaries to drug cartels and organized crime syndicates. Drug trafficking is a powerful source of income for these criminals, and over the past 50 years, authorities have put forward a prohibitionist agenda that restricts drug trafficking and use to hit criminals in their pockets.
But the flow of illegal drugs never stopped. In recent weeks, the debate has begun at the world`s largest producer of cocaine. If anyone has to start this discussion, it is Colombia. „No one else will!“ says Catalina Gil Pinzón, Commissioner of Drugs at the Open Society Foundations. The timing is right. Colombia`s new president, Gustavo Petro, speaks forcefully of changing the paradigm of the war on drugs that President Richard Nixon began half a century ago. The overall conclusion is that using the budget to persecute drug lords and forcibly eradicate coca leaf plantations has not worked.