“It’s time to accept that the war on drugs has been a complete failure,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced during his inauguration celebrations earlier this month, commenting on a bill his government recently introduced to legalize marijuana. recreational marijuana in Congress. To this day, the Colombian state faces challenges regarding the control of its territory by a variety of criminals, from former leftist rebels and paramilitaries to drug cartels and organized crime syndicates. Drug trafficking is a powerful source of income for these outlaws, and for the past 50 years public authorities have promoted a prohibitionist agenda, banning the trade and consumption of drugs to hit the criminals’ pockets. But the flow of illegal drugs never stopped. “We will never achieve peace in Colombia until we regulate drug trafficking,” said Senator Gustavo Bolivar, one of the signatories of the new bill and a close ally of the new president. “Not even the United States, with all its power and money, could win the war on drugs… At the moment, Colombia produces more drugs than when Pablo Escobar was alive, there are more consumers , more farmers. The drug trade is growing despite the money we invest in fighting it and the thousands of deaths we suffer,” said Bolivar, who recently traveled to Colorado for a first-hand look at the economic benefits of weed legalization . In an interview, Bolivar told CNN it was hypocritical for the United States to legalize marijuana at home and support drug wars abroad, such as in Colombia, where Washington sends millions of dollars each year to arm and train Colombian women. forces in their fight against the cartels. . A landmark report by the Truth Commission, an interdisciplinary commission tasked with investigating 50 years of civil conflict in Colombia, found that drug trafficking contributed to prolonging the conflict despite nearly $8 billion in US military aid to Colombia. At least 260,000 Colombians, the vast majority civilians, were killed in the violence.

A new generation of Colombian leaders

The campaign to legalize weed in Colombia unites leftist senators like Bolivar with civil society organizations and deep-pocketed foreign investors, and has been boosted in the past 12 months by the country’s policy shift, with Petro rising to the presidency and progressive parties now a majority in the Colombian Congress. “We saw the legalization of adult recreational use two, three or four years later… but now we’re hoping for this year,” said Luis Merchan, a Colombian businessman who is CEO of Flora Growth. Toronto-based company investing in Colombian marijuana from medical hemp to textile hemp. Campaigners who have been calling for this shift for years agree. “We think now is the time to do it,” says Luis Felipe Ruiz, a researcher at the Colombian NGO Dejusticia, which advocates for drug decriminalization and has documented the drug war for years. Drug trafficking is the leading cause of incarceration in Colombia and, according to Colombia’s Ministry of Justice, 13% of the country’s prisoners are serving sentences related to drug trafficking. Ruiz argues that one of the benefits of legalizing marijuana would also be to reduce the nation’s prison population. “There’s a large part of the political world that’s ready to have a conversation about legalizing marijuana, and frankly, de-stigmatizing cannabis is already a big win for us,” Ruiz told CNN. Those opposed to legalization come from the conservative right and believe the change would just make it easier to abuse drugs. Former president Alvaro Uribe, political mentor of Petro’s predecessor Ivan Duque and the country’s main spokesman for conservatism, tweeted in 2020 that “recreational marijuana leads to other drugs, alters neurons, the consumer reaches states of alienation, he loses control of his decisions, which is the loss of his freedom,” celebrating when an earlier weed legalization plan was blocked in Congress.

Illegal farming

Historically, marijuana in Colombia has been grown by small-scale farmers who cannot afford the pharmaceutical licenses required to produce medical cannabis, so they sell their product to drug cartels. The bill introduced in Congress could allow these small-scale farmers, most of whom are based in chronically underdeveloped rural areas of Colombia, to finally enter the legal market. COCCAM, a confederation of coca, marijuana and poppy growers that works as a lobby group for illegal farmers, estimates that up to 3,000 families depend on illegal marijuana as their main source of income, mostly in the southwestern part of the Caucasus. In most cases, these farmers live in isolated rural areas that are hours away from the nearest paved road. Compared to legal agricultural products such as fruits and vegetables, marijuana and coca leaves do not spoil for days and sell for a higher price per kilo. They also have the advantage of growing all year round, whereas most plants only harvest a few months of the year. Because of Colombia’s historical role, legalizing recreational use would be a huge cultural shift — and perhaps a source of pride, Marchan said. “It wouldn’t just be a source of pride for someone like me that I’ve been snubbed: I’ve been in the business for several decades and when someone learns that I’m from Colombia, they always get the ‘ahh’, that weird look,” he said.

Bolivar, the senator, believes the Colombian regulatory system will eventually follow suit by legalizing not only marijuana but even cocaine — the most lucrative source of income for the cartels. Putting numbers on an illicit market is never an exact science, but a 2016 study by the Colombian government estimated that drug trafficking — the flow of illegal drugs, mainly cocaine, produced in Colombia and sold on international markets from Europe to North America, to Asia — it was worth as much as 3.8% of Colombia’s GDP, or $7.5 million at the time. By comparison, the consumption of illicit drugs — meant as drugs consumed illegally in Colombia and where marijuana plays a larger role — was worth 0.75% of Colombia’s GDP — $2.18 million. “Marijuana is small change in the drug business. The big money that the cartels make and the lion’s share of the problem is called cocaine. And people in Colombia and Mexico will continue to die while we look at the problem hypocritically,” said Bolivar on CNN. It envisions a network of state-regulated dispensaries where cocaine could be sold by prescription and regional agreements in other drug-producing countries. The world’s three largest cocaine producers — Bolivia, Colombia and Peru — are currently ruled by ideologically aligned, leftist leaders. Bolivia has a thriving legal market for coca byproducts, mainly dry leaves chewed by the indigenous population, and as early as 2012, the governments of Bolivia and Colombia pushed for a regional review of drug policies at multilateral meetings. “We could for example conclude a small treaty in our countries to amend the 1961 Narcotic Drugs Convention and plant the first legalization flag in the world; other countries may follow,” the senator said. But before international treaties are rewritten, Colombia may have one more legal battle ahead of it. As it stands, the Colombian constitution expressly prohibits the use of drugs without a medical prescription. So even if Congress were to pass a law legalizing recreational marijuana, it could be ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. An appeal to eliminate this article has already been started by another congressman, Congressman Juan Carlos Losada. “It’s a two-front battle. Our legalization bill in Congress and Losada’s appeal to the constitutional court. Whichever comes first we will support, because this country needs peace,” Bolivar said.