The Senate has failed to pass a bill that would legalize marijuana for Colombia. This is despite the simple majority of senators voting in favor during the final vote held on Tuesday.
It was then a href=”https://www.marijuanamoment.net/colombian-marijuana-legalization-bill” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank>passed the Chamber of Deputies again in May/a> and subsequently a Senate committee. was passed by the Chamber of Deputies in May, and has advanced through a Senate Committee. It received 47-43 votes on Tuesday but needed 54 to become law.
If they want to abolish prohibition, lawmakers will have to restart the two-year process. Losada stated that after the vote, supporters were “sad but convinced that we did our best to the end.”
Estamos tristes, pero convencidos de que la dimos toda hasta el final. Nunca pensamos llegar tan lejos. Hoy tenemos mayorias, faltaron 7 votos.
Llevamos 4 anos en esta lucha y no desfalleceremos para escribir una nueva historia en la lucha contra las drogas.
!Gracias! pic.twitter.com/Scu3BQW5cR
— Juan Carlos Losada (@JuanKarloslos) June 21, 2023
According to a translated version, he stated that “we never thought it would get this far.” “We’ve been fighting this for four years, and we won’t give up until we write a new chapter in the drug war.”
We will not give up. “We will try to create a cannabis market as many times as possible,” said. “We will continue this fight.”
The Interior Minister Luis Fernando Velasco, who was in the Senate chamber at the time of the defeat, said that the government would insist on the issue because “basically, the prohibition benefits only the mafias.”
#PlenariaSenado | Respecto al rechazo de la regulacion de venta de #cannabis a adultos, el @MinInterior, @velascoluisf, expuso: “Desde el Gobierno vamos a insistir en este tema, porque en el fondo la prohibicion solo beneficia a las mafias”.
— Senado de la Republica
(@SenadoGovCo) June 21, 2023
As La Silla Vacia reported, it is expected that the type of party polarization which contributed to the latest legislative result will continue in the future.
The measure was repeatedly delayed both in committee and in the chamber in the run-up to the vote of the entire chamber, which occurred on the final day of the legislative sessions. Many questioned whether the Senate would vote on this measure due to quorum issues and other government priorities.
Another major reason for the failure of the measure on Tuesday was the absence of several key senators, who could have helped the bill to finish.
To be adopted, the proposed constitutional amendment had to pass through the entire legislative process twice in each chamber, over two calendar years. The bill reached the final eight votes but did not reach President Gustavo Petro’s desk.
Last week, Sen. Maria Jose Pizarro – who championed this legislation in the Senate – delivered a passionate speech when the first measure was brought up.
She said: “The prohibitionist policies have increased the price of a product which, without state control has enriched criminal organizations and strengthened them, allowing them to continue expanding and spreading terror throughout the world.”
Hicimos todo lo posible por garantizar libertades, superar el caos juridico de decadas, quisimos quitarle vidas y recursos a la ilegalidad. Quisimos para las comunidades, juventudes y mujeres una cotidianidad sin mafias y violencia.
A lo largo de todo el tramite por la… pic.twitter.com/mMb5DZfoVm
— Maria Jose Pizarro Rodriguez (@PizarroMariaJo) June 21, 2023
The senator stated this after the vote on Tuesday, according to EL PAIS .
The Senate and Chamber had passed two different versions of the legalization bill last year. they moved to make them identical by December. The Senate approved the version of the bill overwhelmingly in December, after the Chamber had first approved it.
It states that the legalization bill will support “the right to free development of personality by allowing citizens the freedom to decide about the consumption of marijuana in a regulated law framework.” It would also reduce “arbitrary discrimination or unequal treatment” in front of consumers.
The report also recommended public education campaigns to promote substance abuse treatment and services.
Nestor Osuna, the Justice Minister, said at last year that Colombia was the victim of a “failed war designed 50 years ago, and due to absurd prohibitionism, has brought us blood, armed conflicts, mafias, and crime.”
Last year, the Chamber of Representatives approved the first version of the Legalization Bill. At the time, the head of the Interior Ministry spoke out in support of the reform proposal. This vote was taken shortly after a committee of the Congress had advanced both this measure and another legalization bill.
Petro, who is a progressive and has advocated for an end to international drug criminalization ever since he was inaugurated as a member of the government last year, discussed possible benefits from cannabis legalization.
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The president gave a speech last year at a United Nations (UN) meeting, in which he urged member nations to change fundamentally their drug policies and to disband prohibition.
Petro also spoke about prospects for legalizing marijuana in Colombia, as a way to reduce the influence of the illegal market. He also said that the new policy should be followed up by releasing those who are currently behind bars for cannabis.
He talked about the potential economic benefits of a legal cannabis cultivation industry. Small towns like Andes and Miranda, for example, could benefit from this, even without licensing requirements.
The president has also indicated that he would be interested in exploring exports of cannabis to countries where it is legal.
Petro met with Mexico’s president last year. The pair announced they would be gathering other Latin American leaders to attend an international conference on “redesigning, rethinking and reevaluating drug policy” in light of the “failure of prohibition”. Mexican legislators are also working towards national legalization.
Petro, who was a member of Colombia’s M-19 group guerrilla, has witnessed the violent conflict that has erupted between guerrillas, narcoparamilitary and drug cartels. This has been made worse by the aggressive drug enforcement approach taken by the Colombian government.
According to the United Nations Office of Drug Control Policy, Colombia is still a major exporter of cocaine despite “drug-supply reduction activities in Colombia such as eradication of the coca bush and destruction of labs.”
Colombian lawmakers introduced a bill in 2020 that would regulate coca, the plant used to make cocaine. This was an acknowledgement of the failures of the decades-long government campaign against the drug. The legislation passed a committee but was eventually shelved in the conservative-dominated legislature.
The Petro administration was seen by many as a positive step in the direction of such a proposal. The president has not taken a stance on the law itself. However, he did campaign on marijuana legalization and promote cannabis as a cocaine alternative.
Juan Manuel Santos, the former Colombian president, has also been critical and supported reform. In an op/ed published just before leaving office, he criticised the United Nations and U.S. president Richard Nixon for setting a standard in drug war that has been ineffective and counterproductive.
He said: “It’s time to talk about responsible government regulations, find ways to cut the air supply of the drug mafias, and address the problem of drug use by increasing resources for prevention, treatment, and harm reduction in terms public health and social fabric.”
Santos, a reform-minded member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP), said that “this reflection must have a global scope to be effective.” “It also must be broad and include participation from not only governments, but also academia and civil society.” It must go beyond the law enforcement and judicial authority and include experts in public health and economists, among others.
A U.S. Congress delegation recently returned from a trip to Colombia, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-OR, who was part the group, told Marijuana Moment, that one of the themes of his discussions with Colombian officials was that “the world has lost the war on drugs.”
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Image element provided by Bryan Pocius.
The post Colombian Marijuana Bill Stalls in Final Senate Vote Despite Majority Support first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
