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Just at a time when the report of the drug commission of the United States Congress is being discussed in the country, in which it is assured that Plan Colombia was a failure in the fight against drugs, the Senate of the Republic has just carried out a meeting on the fight against drugs, in which the call of most of the experts who participated is regulation.
The International Conference on Drug Policy, Colombia 2020, chaired by Senator Gustavo Bolívar is a global exchange of experiences between high-level experts, civil society, academics and international organizations, around drug policies: their achievements, shortcomings and lessons learned.
The first to intervene in the event organized by the Commission for the Analysis and Strengthening of Drug Policy of the Senate of the Republic was the former president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, who was emphatic in expressing that legalization is the best way to solve the problems derived from drug trafficking and drug cultivation.
(See also: Duque calls for unity to fight deforestation)
“I was also wrong thinking that a strong hand was the solution to drug trafficking” assured the former president, who added that “Prohibition is the mother of all the problems that the world fight against drugs has today. As long as we take that business away from the mafias and the State takes it on, we can find an effective solution, “he said.
“Prohibition is the mother of all the problems that the global fight against drugs has today,” Santos said.
Another of the guests at the Conference was the Secretary of the Interior of Mexico, Olga Sánchez Cordero, who stressed that “from the Government of Mexico and through Congress, the approval of the federal law for the regulation of cannabis is sought, with an effect of social justice ”, adding that “The regulation will remove from the life horizon of thousands of peasants, community members or small rural landowners a sword of Damocles, a threat that today hangs over their heads because there is where the action of organized crime enters,” he emphasized and sentenced that the path is “regular the complete chain of production, distribution and consumption ”.
The regulation will remove a sword of Damocles from the life horizon of thousands of peasants, community members or small rural owners
The event also heard a note from Senator Gustavo Bolívar, who assured that in Colombia “99,900 families were enrolled in the National Crop Substitution Program and today the Government has failed to comply with 90 percent of those families, forcing them to return to the illicit crops. Every year the government takes resources away from this program ”.
For his part, Jhon Walsh, director of the Drug Policy program of the Washington Office for Latin American Affairs WOLA, recalled the 15 states that in the US have already regulated cannabis for adult use. “Tomorrow (Friday, December 4) a bill to decriminalize marijuana will be discussed. I believe that, indeed, we are on this path towards regulation, and then towards peace ”, he concluded.
United States Report
Eliot Engel, a member of the US House of Representatives, said that in Colombia “a lot of emphasis” has been placed on eradication as a strategy to reduce crops and less on programs – such as alternative development – that can offer long-term solutions.
And on that several legislators, mostly Democrats, agreed. According to Shannon O’Neel, chairman of the Drug Policy Commission appointed by Congress to do the assessment, New investments must be made in conflict zones and alternatives must be offered to growers so that they see that there are more profitable options other than coca production.
“Eradication alone does not work. Despite the massive eradication efforts that have been advanced, what we have seen is that growers adapt to these changes. In order for crop reduction efforts to be sustainable, alternatives must be offered” said Mary Speck, who was also part of the commission that prepared the report.
Marijuana regulation bill
In July, a bill, authored by Senator Gustavo Bolívar, was filed in Congress that seeks to regulate marijuana in the country.
This regulation of marijuana, as proposed, would allow its use only to adults and “35 percent of the licenses to grow it would be granted as a priority. (and even free) to the victims of the war on drugs, such as indigenous people and peasants. “
To access it there would be two ways: the so-called ‘coffee shops’ or non-profit clubs.
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