“War on drugs has been a complete failure” – Colombian President

The Colombian President has described the country’s war on drugs as a “complete failure”.

Colombia has long battled numerous cartels in their history over the production of cocaine which is then exported throughout the world.

To this day the government continue to fight various criminals related to drug including guerrilla fighters, paramilitaries and the infamous cartels and organised crime business.

The Colombian government appear to now be taking a different approach to narcotics.

Within Colombia cannabis production is allowed for medicinal purposes which they mostly export to the United States. They are now intending to legislate reactional cannabis as well.

In doing so they hope that they can steer farmers away from producing illegal product and into the legal cannabis industry.

The new laws would allow small-scale farmers to grow cannabis, many of who are from underdeveloped regions.

Since the introduction of the “war on drugs” Colombia has received almost $8 billion in military aid from the USA and at least 260,000 Colombians, mostly civilians have been killed in the violence.

Colombian politics has recently shifted to the left of the spectrum with progressive parties holding the majority in congress. There is also desire from foreign investors for the new legislation hoping to take a share of the market.

Gustavo Bolivar, a left wing senator supporting the bill, believes that the country may one day go further and legalise cocaine. The illegal drugs trade from Colombia is worth approximately 3.5% of Colombian GDP.

There are also eyes on Bolivia and Peru who are also run by similar idealogical left wing governments who combined with Colombia are the top 3 producers of Cocaine in the world.

The new bill still has a few hurdles to pass. The Colombian constitution forbids narcotic drugs which could deem the bill unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.