A President’s Plea: Why Colombia’s Petro Is Proper About Legalizing Every thing
When the Sufferer Tells You to Cease Taking pictures
Colombian President Gustavo Petro did one thing outstanding final week: he publicly instructed Donald Trump to legalize marijuana and finish the Conflict on Medicine. Not as a tutorial train or a progressive coverage proposal, however as an pressing plea from a frontrunner whose nation has borne the brunt of American drug coverage for over half a century.
“Colombia truly gives the cash and the deaths within the battle, whereas the U.S. gives the consumption,” Petro wrote on X. “Consumption within the U.S. and the rising consumption in Europe are liable for 300,000 murders in Colombia and 1,000,000 deaths in Latin America.”
This is not hyperbole. That is the president of a nation that has been floor zero for the drug conflict since Richard Nixon declared narcotics “public enemy primary” in 1971. Petro proposed the alternative of Trump’s present method—which incorporates extrajudicial missile strikes on alleged drug boats—by suggesting the U.S. take away tariffs on Colombian agriculture, legalize hashish exports “like all good,” and “scientifically examine whether or not prohibition is important, or slightly accountable and state-regulated consumption construct a more practical treaty.”
This represents a historic second: a sitting head of state whose nation has suffered immeasurably from drug prohibition instantly telling the US to legalize medicine as a matter of worldwide justice and sensible coverage. Petro is not a fringe activist or a tutorial theorist. He is the elected chief of Colombia, and he is calling America’s drug conflict precisely what it’s—a failed coverage that perpetuates violence, empowers cartels, and kills a whole lot of 1000’s whereas undertaking nothing.
The query is not whether or not Petro is correct. The proof overwhelmingly helps his place. The query is whether or not American management has the braveness to acknowledge a long time of catastrophic coverage failure and implement the answer that Colombia—the nation that is paid the best worth for our conflict—is begging us to undertake.
Colombia’s Struggling: The Physique Depend of American Coverage
To grasp why Petro’s plea issues, it’s essential to perceive what the drug conflict has finished to Colombia. The statistics are staggering, however the human actuality is worse.
The battle between the Colombian authorities, leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, and drug cartels—all intertwined with cocaine trafficking funded by American demand—killed over 260,000 individuals between 1958 and 2018. Eight million individuals had been internally displaced. Tens of 1000’s had been “disappeared.” Villages had been massacred. Journalists, politicians, judges, and cops had been assassinated by the a whole lot.
Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel did not simply visitors cocaine—it waged conflict in opposition to the Colombian state with U.S. demand fueling each bullet and bomb. Escobar was liable for 1000’s of deaths, together with the 1989 bombing of Avianca Flight 203 that killed 110 individuals, the DAS Constructing bombing that killed 70, and the systematic assassination of presidential candidates, Supreme Courtroom justices, and anybody who opposed him. American cocaine shoppers funded all of it.
The Cali Cartel that succeeded Escobar’s empire was no higher. Neither had been the paramilitaries that shaped allegedly to combat guerrillas however primarily engaged in drug trafficking and terrorizing civilian populations. The AUC (United Self-Protection Forces of Colombia) dedicated massacres, pressured disappearances, and mass displacement whereas controlling cocaine routes. American drug coverage empowered each faction.
Plan Colombia, launched in 2000 with $10 billion in U.S. funding, was supposed to finish drug trafficking by way of army intervention and coca eradication. It achieved neither whereas inflicting huge environmental harm by way of aerial fumigation that destroyed meals crops and poisoned water provides. Peasant farmers rising coca—actually because no authorized crops had been economically viable—had been handled as enemy combatants. Tens of 1000’s had been displaced by pressured eradication packages.
The human price extends past demise tolls. Colombian kids grew up in conflict zones. Girls confronted systematic sexual violence from all armed factions. Indigenous communities had been displaced from ancestral lands. The social cloth of whole areas was destroyed. And for what? American cocaine consumption did not decline. It remained regular or elevated whereas Colombia bled.
Petro is not exaggerating when he attributes 300,000 Colombian deaths to American drug consumption. If something, he is being conservative. The drug conflict turned Colombia right into a battlefield for American coverage goals that had been by no means achievable by way of prohibition. Each demise, each displaced household, each destroyed neighborhood may be traced again to the easy proven fact that People needed cocaine, prohibition made cocaine extremely worthwhile, and Colombia occurred to be the place coca grows.
The Case for Whole Legalization: Not Simply Hashish
Petro particularly talked about hashish legalization, however the logic extends to all medicine. This is why full legalization and regulation makes extra sense than persevering with prohibition:
Cartel income collapse. Drug trafficking generates an estimated $400-600 billion globally. Take away prohibition, and that income disappears in a single day. Cartels cannot compete with authorized markets providing quality-controlled merchandise at costs reflecting precise manufacturing prices slightly than prohibition premiums. Cocaine prices roughly $1,500 per kilogram to supply in Colombia. It sells for $30,000-50,000 within the U.S. That markup exists purely as a result of prohibition creates synthetic shortage. Legalize manufacturing and distribution, and cartels lose 70% or extra of their income base.
With out drug cash, cartels cannot afford to deprave officers, purchase military-grade weapons, or fund the infrastructure required for large-scale trafficking operations. They’d nonetheless interact in different crimes—extortion, kidnapping, human trafficking—however they’d be dramatically weakened. Cash is energy in legal organizations, and drug prohibition gives limitless cash.
Eradicating the drug conflict defend. Human trafficking is the second-largest illicit market globally, producing roughly $150 billion yearly. It is also essentially the most morally reprehensible: slavery, intercourse trafficking, little one exploitation. But legislation enforcement sources are overwhelmingly dedicated to drug enforcement as a result of medicine generate extra arrests, extra asset forfeitures, and extra political assist.
If we ended drug prohibition, these enforcement sources—billions in funding, a whole lot of 1000’s of officers, in depth surveillance infrastructure—may redirect towards combating human trafficking. Think about if the DEA’s $3.1 billion annual price range targeted on dismantling trafficking networks as a substitute of arresting hashish customers. Inside a decade, we may devastate trafficking operations that at the moment function with relative impunity as a result of legislation enforcement is busy preventing the drug conflict.
Decentralizing pharmaceutical monopolies. Prohibition does not simply empower cartels—it protects pharmaceutical monopolies on drug manufacturing, analysis, and distribution. Authorized, regulated markets for at the moment prohibited substances would break these monopolies. Why ought to Pfizer management opioid manufacturing when authorized, regulated alternate options may exist? Why ought to sufferers rely on costly patented medicines when plant-based alternate options may work as properly or higher?
Decentralization means extra analysis, extra competitors, extra innovation, and decrease costs. It means sufferers may entry therapeutic substances with out navigating pharmaceutical gatekeeping. It means researchers may examine psychedelics, MDMA, and different prohibited compounds with out bureaucratic obstacles which have stifled medical progress for many years.
Public well being over legal justice. Prohibition treats drug use as a criminal offense requiring punishment. Legalization treats it as a public well being challenge requiring schooling, hurt discount, and therapy when wanted. Portugal decriminalized all medicine in 2001 and redirected enforcement spending towards therapy. Drug use declined. Overdose deaths plummeted. HIV infections from needle-sharing dropped dramatically. Treating drug use as a well being challenge produces higher outcomes than criminalization.
High quality management and security. Prohibition means customers by no means know what they’re consuming—purity, dosage, adulterants. Fentanyl contamination kills tens of 1000’s as a result of prohibition prevents high quality management. Authorized markets imply standardized merchandise, correct labeling, and shopper safety. Overdoses drop when individuals know what they’re taking.
Addressing the Penalties: Schooling, Not Incarceration
Would legalizing all medicine create issues? Sure. Let’s be sincere about them.
Some individuals would strive medicine they at the moment keep away from on account of authorized danger. Dependancy charges may enhance initially, although proof from decriminalization experiments suggests in any other case. Workplaces would want insurance policies for impairment. Dad and mom would want to safe substances from kids. Public well being methods would want expanded therapy capability.
However these issues are manageable with schooling and regulation—and so they’re vastly preferable to prohibition’s penalties. The cash saved from ending enforcement ($51 billion yearly on the drug conflict) plus tax income from authorized gross sales may fund complete schooling, therapy, and hurt discount packages.
Schooling turns into essential. Educate individuals the right way to use substances safely—dosing, setting, avoiding mixing substances, recognizing issues, accessing assist. Simply as we train accountable alcohol use, we may train accountable drug use. Most individuals who strive medicine use them recreationally with out growing issues. Schooling helps individuals make knowledgeable selections.
Therapy have to be accessible, reasonably priced, and evidence-based. Drug courts that mandate therapy as a substitute of punishment present promise however stay restricted. Legalization income may fund therapy on demand—no ready lists, no insurance coverage necessities, no disgrace.
Hurt discount packages—supervised consumption websites, needle exchanges, drug checking companies—stop deaths and illness whereas connecting customers with companies. These packages work however stay unlawful or underfunded in most jurisdictions. Legalization allows them to function brazenly and successfully.
Would some individuals make poor selections? Sure. However prohibition does not stop poor selections—it simply provides legal penalties that make dangerous conditions worse. Somebody fighting habit wants therapy, not incarceration. Somebody utilizing medicine recreationally wants schooling, not a felony file.
The query is not whether or not legalization is ideal—it is not. The query is whether or not it is higher than prohibition. Given prohibition’s physique depend, financial waste, and full failure to scale back drug use, the reply is clear.
The Sticky Backside Line: Will Trump Play the Trump Card?
Will Donald Trump embrace complete drug legalization? In all probability not. Regardless of his unpredictability and occasional breaks from Republican orthodoxy, Trump has proven no indication of supporting something past restricted hashish rescheduling. His administration is at the moment conducting extrajudicial killings of alleged drug traffickers and has designated cartels as terrorist organizations—escalating the drug conflict, not ending it.
However the symbolism of calling it a “Trump card” is not solely facetious. Trump prides himself on doing what others will not, on breaking with failed standard knowledge, on making offers that appear inconceivable. Complete drug legalization could be the final word Trump transfer—surprising, controversial, and doubtlessly transformative. It could devastate cartels extra successfully than any army marketing campaign. It could generate huge tax income. It could free tens of millions from legal information. It could deal with the fentanyl disaster by way of high quality management slightly than interdiction.
Whether or not Trump has the imaginative and prescient or braveness to make that transfer stays unknown. What’s sure is that Gustavo Petro—representing a nation that has paid an unconscionable worth for American drug coverage—is providing the answer that proof, logic, and primary humanity demand. Colombia has earned the suitable to inform America to finish the drug conflict. The query is whether or not we’re able to listening.
Legalize hashish. Legalize all the things. Regulate manufacturing and distribution. Tax gross sales and fund schooling and therapy. Let cartels collapse from lack of income. Free legislation enforcement to deal with precise violent crime and human trafficking. Deal with drug use as a public well being challenge requiring compassion, not an ethical failing requiring punishment.
The Conflict on Medicine has failed comprehensively for over 50 years. Colombia’s president is telling us to cease. The proof helps him. The one query is whether or not American delight can admit we had been catastrophically mistaken and implement the answer that is been apparent for many years. They do not name it a Trump card for nothing—however will he play it? Who is aware of.
COLOMBIA GOES ALL IN ON CANNABIS, READ ON…
