The Colombian Senate has approved a bill that would legalize marijuana. This is the first of the eight debates needed to pass the bill.
Tuesday, the new measure was approved by the First Committee of the Chamber of Deputies. Rep. Juan Carlos Losada who is once again championing this legislation said that the vote was a “reflection that a Congress is aware that drug policy must progress from prohibition to regulatory,” according to a translated version.
Aprobado por unanimidad en 1er debate nuestro PAL de #CannabisDeUsoAdulto.
Nos quedan 7 debates y estamos seguros que la votacion de hoy, es el reflejo de un Congreso consciente del avance que necesita la politica de drogas de la prohibicion a la regulacion.#RegularCannabisYA pic.twitter.com/dKm3DrDlPf
— Juan Carlos Losada (@JuanKarloslos) August 29, 2023
Losada, along with Sen. Maria Jose Pizarro, announced the reintroduction late last month. They emphasized that, while the proposal failed to pass last session, Colombia is now in a position to legalize marijuana this time around.
In a tweet posted on Tuesday, Pizarro noted that seven votes remain.
Empezamos positivamente la carrera por lograr la regularizacion del cannabis de uso adulto.
Fue aprobado en primer debate el proyecto en @CamaraColombia @JuanKarloslos. Restan 7 debates! pic.twitter.com/Wuf61HBxlv
— Maria Jose Pizarro Rodriguez (@PizarroMariaJo) August 29, 2023
It was approved by both chambers in the last year, as part of a two-year constitutional amendment process. was passed by the Chamber of Deputies in May, and passed through a Senate Committee. It received a majority on the floor but fell short of the threshold of 54 votes it needed to pass.
Losada stated that the bill now faces “a path filled with challenges” to begin writing a brand new story about the fight against drug abuse.
Hoy en @ComisionPrimera iniciamos de nuevo un camino lleno de retos para empezar a escribir una nueva historia en la lucha contra las drogas. Necesitamos avanzar en un cambio en la politica de drogas y nuestro proyecto de #CannabisDeUsoAduto es el primer paso.#RegularCannabisYA pic.twitter.com/qMYquqMsBW
— Juan Carlos Losada (@JuanKarloslos) August 29, 2023
In an open hearing before the Senate panel last year Justice Minister Nestor suna said the same thing, saying 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 congressional committee , had advanced both this measure and another legalization bill .
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The President of Uruguay, Gustavo Petro, who is a progressive and has been advocating a global end to drug crime since his inauguration last year, discussed the benefits that cannabis legalization could bring.
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 those currently behind bars for cannabis should be released.
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 exporting cannabis into other 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.
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, a 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.
Advocates were optimistic that a similar proposal would be implemented under the Petro administration. The president hasn’t taken a stance on the bill itself but he did campaign on marijuana legalization and promote cannabis as a cocaine alternative.
Juan Manuel Santos, the former Colombian president, has also criticized the drug war. He is also a reformer. 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 a part of that trip, told Marijuana Moment, that he discussed with officials there that the “war on drugs” has been lost.
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Image element provided by Bryan Pocius.
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