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Colombia passes 1st draft of drug crop legalization bill

S.J.B.

S.J.B.

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Colombia passes 1st draft of drug crop legalization bill
Sarah Kinosian
Colombia Reports
May 9th, 2012

The Colombian House of Representatives Wednesday passed the first draft of a bill that seeks to legalize illicit crops.

The initiative calls for the decriminalization of growing plants such as coca, marijuana and opium poppies in the country.

Representative Hugo Velasquez Jaramillo, who proposed the bill, explained that although the cultivation of plants would be legal under the new legislation, the processing and trafficking of drugs would remain subject to criminal sentencing.

According to Velazquez, congress cannot move forward with the “failed drug policy pursued by the governments of Colombia and the United States.”
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Read the full story here.

This is big news - finally one of the Latin American countries is taking a real step in the right direction. Let's hope this passes.
 
About time they just told the US to go fuck themselves... two thumbs up colombia!
 
epresentative Hugo Velasquez Jaramillo, who proposed the bill, explained that although the cultivation of plants would be legal under the new legislation, the processing and trafficking of drugs would remain subject to criminal sentencing.
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This moderate approach would possibly be palatable to Americans too. Non-drug people have a visceral reaction against chemicals and pharmaceuticals, but many would be OK with plants.

How much opium would you need to smoke to fatally overdose? How much coca would you need to chew? I tell you the Colombian model can work in the US.
 
I'm glad to hear this, although it wouldn't really matter. Heroin and cocaine is already being produced and trafficked.

At least it is a step in the right direction.
 
Hell.fucking.yes. Don't mean to be unprofessional lol but this is seriously good news. I'm glad that they are pretty much telling the US that they're going to do what they want. The US has no business up everyone else's ass about drugs. There are much bigger problems in this world than people getting high.
 
i hope this makes a noticeable bump in supply and quality, specifically h - would like to see more of that, consistently.
 
Yess colombia !

We need more countries like this . Countries that create their own laws and not laws that the US wants them to have .
 
Here's a question - What's the point of them allowing the growth of such crops, when the process and trafficking of them is still illegal? I fail to see any reason what so ever of this becoming a reality. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. But, why? They are essentially saying "Yes, you can grow these plants, but using them is still illegal". I guess I'm just missing the point. Is it just for the sake of being able to grow said plants? For the sake of moving one step closer in the direction of legalization? Perhaps it's a simple conspiracy to allow drug lords in Colombia to get away with growing these plants, ultimately to process and sell drugs.
 
J.Wallace said:
Here's a question - What's the point of them allowing the growth of such crops, when the process and trafficking of them is still illegal? I fail to see any reason what so ever of this becoming a reality. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. But, why? They are essentially saying "Yes, you can grow these plants, but using them is still illegal". I guess I'm just missing the point. Is it just for the sake of being able to grow said plants? For the sake of moving one step closer in the direction of legalization? Perhaps it's a simple conspiracy to allow drug lords in Colombia to get away with growing these plants, ultimately to process and sell drugs.
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Well just off the top of my head, it allows them to focus their resources on the traffickers who cause violence instead of being forced to prosecute reasonably harmless farmers who are just trying to make a living.
 
Crankinit said:
Well just off the top of my head, it allows them to focus their resources on the traffickers who cause violence instead of being forced to prosecute reasonably harmless farmers who are just trying to make a living.
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Makes sense. And a good reason, too.

I'm all for this bill passing. Honestly, I see the world heading more and more in the direction of allowing drugs to be processed and legalized, regulated and taxed. People in power know that citizens want to get high. Humans, since the dawn of time, have wanted to change their perception of reality. That will never change. I think slowly, but surely we, as a species, are growing to accept this and learning to live with it, and simply educate and help protect, instead of trying to scare and prevent.

After all, this is only a "draft" of a bill. Nothing real is happening, yet. But, it's a step in the right direction. Focus on where the violence is, that's what I say.
 
But, it's a step in the right direction.
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I think that's the main thing. Whatever this bill does or doesn't achieve, it's a sign that international governments won't be threatened into toeing the line on out-dated drug policies anymore.
 
I don't get why you'd legalize the crops but criminalize the obvious refined products of those crops. It's like saying I can grow tomatoes but I'm not allowed to make tomato sauce out of them.

To me, this law can only benefit the pharmaceutical companies, since they are the only ones who would be able to legally purchase the harvest from farmers to process into drugs. If anyone else does it, they go to jail.

Making the crop legal but the drugs not will increase the supply, along with the jail population. This is immoral, IMO. Either legalize it completely or don't bother. I'm hoping this is just a first step to more progressive drug laws later on. And for sure this is being done in a moderate way as to not offend the U.S. The U.S. controls global drug law through its economic power. If drug laws change in the U.S. there would be a global revolution.
 
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