The president of Colombia says that lawmakers who voted this week to put aside a marijuana legalization measure only help to perpetuate the illegal drug trade and violence associated with an unregulated industry.
The cannabis bill passed through the Chamber of Representatives, a Senate Committee, but the full Senate blocked its advancement on Tuesday. Supporters blame this on the misinformation that surrounded a separate presidential decree issued by President Gustavo Petro to end the criminalization of drugs in general.
Con tumbar la ley de legalizacion del cannabis lo unico que se hace es elevarle las ganancias al narcotrafico y su violencia.
— Gustavo Petro December 13 2023
Petro, in a Thursday post on X, formerly Twitter, said: “By overturning cannabis legalization laws, you only increase the profits and violence of drug trafficking.”
The bill was not approved during the fourth of the eight debates needed this week. This means that lawmakers will have to start the two-year process again in 2024 to possibly enact marijuana as a constitutional amendement.
The president has been a vocal critic against the drug war and has supported legalizing and regulating marijuana. However, he has not been particularly public about his position regarding the marijuana measure championed Rep. Juan Carlos Losada & Sen. Maria Jose Pizarro.
In recent days, lawmakers who support legalization have urged the Senate to consider the bill urgently. The sponsor has warned about the consequences of not taking action before the session ends in 2023. The debate was secured, but the members ultimately voted it down.
Losada claimed that opponents rallied behind “misinformation,” relating to the unrelated executive order of the president fully legalizing simple possession of drugs, and were able derail the reform.
The decree removes a fine of $50 for small amounts of drug possession and the police’s ability to seize it. This was a step in a wider decriminalization program enacted by an earlier Constitutional Court decision.
Even if marijuana legislation had passed the Senate on February 2, it would still need to pass both chambers next year to reach the President’s desk.
The Senate stalled the measure in its final stages during the last session, forcing advocates to restart the long legislative process.
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.”
The Colombian President, after a recent trip to the U.S. recollected smelling the smell of marijuana wafting along the streets of New York City. He commented on the “enormous hysteria” of the legal cannabis sales that are now taking place in he nation that started the global drug battle many decades ago.
Petro took the lead at the Latin American Caribbean Conference on Drugs, in September. He noted that Colombia and Mexico were “the biggest victims” of the policy and compared the drug war with “genocide.”
Petro 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 abolish prohibition.
He has also spoken about prospects for legalizing marijuana in Colombia, as a way to reduce the influence of illicit markets. He also said that he would release people currently behind bars for cannabis offenses.
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Image element provided by Bryan Pocius.
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