“Let’s talk: What happens if cannabis is legalized in Colombia without licenses? Like planting corn, like planting potatoes,” said the leftist president during a meeting with mayors from the southwest of the country, where illegal marijuana plantations abound.
Colombia, the world’s top cocaine producer, legalized medical cannabis in 2016. Since then, several foreign companies have received licenses to produce and export marijuana, but recreational trade remains criminalized.
“If we are going to legalize cannabis, are we going to keep all those people imprisoned in overcrowded prisons or is it time to release many people?” Petro raised, adding that “they were criminalized for something that in a good part of the United States is legal”.
In recent years, several countries such as South Africa, Uruguay and Canada have legalized marijuana, as have some states in the United States.
Dissidents of the peace pact that disarmed the FARC guerrillas in 2017, ELN rebels and other armed groups are fighting with blood and fire for the income from drug trafficking and other illegal businesses in various regions of Colombia, which has recorded almost 60 massacres so far. so far this year.
“Let’s get the people together (to discuss legalization). Even that those who are armed arrive unarmed, ”said the president.
Petro has called for ending the “failed” war on drugs, in which the United States is Colombia’s main partner.
Washington says it is open to an “open and honest conversation” on the issue.
The entrance Petro plans to expand the legalization of marijuana in Colombia was first published in diary TODAY.
