The Colombian government has lifted fines for consuming small amounts of drugs, changing its approach to combating drug trafficking in the world's largest cocaineproducing country.
An executive decree published this Saturday (9) by local press outlets suspended the validity of sanctions against “the possession of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances” intended for personal use and not for sale.
The measure does not change the prison sentences of up to 20 years for drug trafficking offenses provided for in Colombian law, but eliminates the $50 (R$245.7 at the current exchange rate) fines imposed by police on consumers.
The possession and use of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and some synthetic drugs had already been decriminalized by a Constitutional Court decision in 1994, but economic sanctions were maintained by a 2018 decision by the government of conservative President Iván Duque.
1 of 1 Army seizes drugs at the Amazon border with Colombia in December 2022 Photo: Disclosure/Army Army seizes drugs at the Amazon border with Colombia in December 2022 Photo: Disclosure/Army
“If the Constitution allows personal dosing, police activity should not focus on prosecuting drug users, but on prosecuting big drug lords,” President Gustavo Petro said on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
“It is necessary (…) to prevent the criminalization of drug users through corrective measures,” says the December 7 decree.
Petro who has also ordered public authorities to end operations against smallscale coca leaf growers is defending a change in approach to the war on drugs that Colombia is leading with economic support from the United States, the main consumer market for South American cocaine.
The opposition claims that these decisions limit the authorities' ability to combat drug trafficking amid the expansion of illegal cultivation and increased consumption at the local level.