Is It Convenient to Regulate Drugs?

It is no secret that cocaine is a million-dollar business that generates a lot of violence and social problems. According to the World Drug Report 2021, from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 83% of the cocaine seized worldwide comes from the Americas, especially South America, with 755 tons in 2019.

Even though in Asia and Africa the sale of cocaine is a growing problem, the main production and trafficking chains are in Latin America, from where the drug is sent mainly to the United States and Europe. According to this UN report, the main growing areas are in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru, and the main traffic flow continues to be from Colombia to the United States. However, countries like Ecuador, Venezuela, and the countries of Central America are part of this chain, not counting Mexico, where the drug trafficking phenomenon has larger dimensions, which make it a country with increasingly more violence due to the struggles of drug cartels. the drug, that trade routes are disputed.

Also rea: Duque and Lasso: Alliance Against Drug Trafficking

A new approach

For years, politics in the fight against drugs has focused on a heavy hand. However, despite the efforts, the results do not seem to be positive or, at least, too advanced. It could be said that drug trafficking has not ended but has been transformed because criminal networks reorganize as soon as one of their leaders is arrested. In this way, the business continues to function, leaving violence in the territories and circumventing the law. For this reason, many experts conclude that the fight against drugs has failed and it is time to look for alternatives.

One of these people is the former president of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, who is a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, made up of 34 politicians, leaders, and intellectuals from different backgrounds. Figures such as Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, stand out in this group; Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil; José Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Prize winner; Kgalema Motlanthe, Former President of South Africa; Ruth Dreifuss, Former President of Switzerland and Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations. This organization launched its annual report at the end of last year, which by 2021 was entitled “Time to end prohibition”, which indicates that the illegal drug market has an estimated value of 500,000 million dollars, controlled by transnational organized crime.

“Until now, with prohibition, the big drug dealers have been the only winners. The most effective way to fight them is simply to end prohibition and regulate the drug market,” said former President Santos at the launch of this report. In addition, he assured that this is urgent, especially for Colombia and the producing countries, because the more time passes, the more the mafias become stronger.

Recommended reading for the #holidays: our 10th anniversary report #TimetoEndProhibition Available in seven languages ​​https://t.co/APYGJbECcv pic .twitter.com/vqV9YR7b2V

— Global Commission on Drug Policy (@globalcdp) December 23, 2021

Another issue related to cocaine, which may be similar to medical cannabis, is the need to approve the use of the coca leaf, which today is in limbo. This plant is used by various indigenous communities, with their ancestral knowledge, for the manufacture of various products. Recently the Nasa community in Colombia had trouble with Coca-Cola for the production of a beer derived from coca leaves, called Coca Pola. In this use of coca, completely different from that of cocaine, there could be a business opportunity for communities in the cultivating countries.

Regulating drugs should not mean that they circulate freely and that anyone can access them, which is one of the points that generate the most resistance. The proposals on regularization usually indicate that the use of drugs should be treated as a public health issue, with a preventive approach, but not as a crime. Figures from a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime indicate that in 2019 drug use killed almost half a million people 2019 and at least 275 million people used drugs during 2020. In this sense, regularization should imply greater control over this business, without encouraging consumption.

However, even though these measures may have benefits for the countries in reducing violence, stigmatization, and criminality, it is not an easy task. The Global Commission on Drug Policy points out that there are 5 key factors to achieve an effective drug policy: putting people’s health and safety first; ensuring access to essential and pain medications; ending the imprisonment and criminalization of drug users; refocusing efforts to combat organized crime, guaranteeing social development and regulating the drug market to put the States in control of the said market.

However, for this to be effective, it would be necessary to have a differentiated approach in the new world drug treatment policy, since the producing countries would have to face different problems from those of the consuming countries. While the majority consuming countries, such as the United States and Europe, should focus on the public health of the population, the producing countries should correct structural economic, and social problems. This would imply redistributing the budgets that are currently allocated to drug control to serve the populations that today are part of the areas affected by trafficking.