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News Colombia’s first leftist president says war on drugs has failed

thegreenhand

thegreenhand

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Colombia’s first leftist president says war on drugs has failed​

The Guardian
8 Aug 2022

Excerpt:
Colombia’s first leftist president has been sworn into office, promising to fight inequality and bring peace to a country long haunted by bloody feuds between the government, drug traffickers and rebel groups.

Gustavo Petro, a former member of Colombia’s M-19 guerrilla group, won the presidential election in June by beating conservative parties that offered moderate changes to the market-friendly economy, but failed to connect with voters frustrated by rising poverty and violence against human rights leaders and environmental groups in rural areas.

On Sunday, he said Colombia was getting a “second chance” to tackle violence and poverty and promised that his government would implement economic policies that seek to end longstanding inequalities and ensure “solidarity” with the nation’s most vulnerable.

The incoming president said he was willing to start peace talks with armed groups across the country and also called on the United States and other developed nations to change drug policies that have focused on the prohibition of substances like cocaine, and fed violent conflicts across Colombia and other Latin American nations.

“It’s time for a new international convention that accepts that the war on drugs has failed,” he said. “Of course peace is possible. But it depends on current drug policies being substituted with strong measures that prevent consumption in developed societies.”
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To paraphrase a famous line about Mexico* that holds true for much of the Western Hemisphere:
"Poor Latin America—so far from God and so close to the USA!"​


*Pobre México, tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de Estados Unidos. –Porfirio Díaz, ca. 1880s {attributed}
 
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But it depends on current drug policies being substituted with strong measures that prevent consumption in developed societies.”
Click to expand...

Just as much of a dead-end as those who think the situation can be fixed by preventing supply from developing societies. The cocaine market is such a corrupting influence in Latin America because there's such a massive demand/supply imbalance due to regulatory factors which also leave the market open only to those willing to break the law. If it were produced and sold like any other commodity these issues wouldn't disappear overnight, but they would almost certainly begin to trend in that direction. Obviously this is not completely in the hands of the Latin American governments. If one country nationalized the market and sold freely to visiting merchants, the borders around them would be sealed shut. Well, some of the South American countries might be able to do it as a bloc. Mexico absolutely couldn't, the U.S. would not allow it.
 
I don't know if you guys have seen his speech from the UN from last year, but it's quite good. He brings together the war on drugs and environmental topics really well, it's a great criticism of the war on drugs from a politician imo. I don't know much about his administration but I liked the speech

If you have the time check out:

 
I'm not saying it's the right thing to do but he's not wrong.
If I'm Mexico I'm making a deal with the cartels end the violence, traffic all you want anywhere else but not here. -and i'd stop taking money from the us and tax the cartels -.

You might say that's terrible you're crazy how could you, to what I say YOU GRINGOS ARE THE ONES BUYING THE DRUGS and pre 1984 is exactly how it worked down there. And is 100,000 deaths annually from violence in Mexico any less insane ?

It ain't working dawg.
We fought the north Vietnamese for 22 years
We fought the Taliban for 20 years
We've been fighting a global drug war for 80 years?
You don't know the definition of crazy
 
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