Colombia Is Considering Legalizing Its Massive Cocaine Industry

I hesitated before posting this thread. Please keep the conversation about the law and potential ramifications of it and keep to the t&c's and everything.

Columbia after years of fighting against the massive amount of coc aine production in their country estimated to be worth around $2.7 billion per year is now attempting.to legalize and put under government control the farming of coca and production of various substances from it, including coc aine.

The bill is currently before their Congress. If it passes, the government would buy coca plantations and regulate the production and distribution of the products. Aboriginal knowledge would be used to produce food and other things from the coca leaves, which according to the article, does have nutritional and health benefits.

The government would also produce coc aine which is legal for personal use in Columbia, but would also be shipped for laboratory research around the world.

link

After 40 years of U.S. - backed anti-drug policy that criminalizes the coca leaf, Marulanda and a group of members of congress want to change tack. 

The bill attempts to create a legal industry that distributes coc aine to users for pain relief, not recreational use. Like that in Bolivia, it also hopes to bring hundreds of thousands of illegal coca farmers out of the shadows into a legal, homegrown industry.

It proposes that the state buy the entirety of Colombia’s coca harvest.

There are 200,000 farmer families linked to coca growing. The state would buy coca at market prices. The programs for coca eradication each year cost four trillion pesos ($1 billion). Buying the entire coca harvest each year would cost 2.6 trillion pesos ($680 million). It costs less to buy the harvest than to destroy it.

With that intervention from the government, two fundamental things would happen. First, you would bring 200,000 families into a legal sphere where they would no longer be persecuted by the state. Usually, these farm families end up displacing themselves, deforesting new areas, and re-planting coca while they’re running from the authorities. Second, Colombia is destroying around 300,000 hectares of forest per year. It’s estimated that coca-growing families are responsible for 25 percent of that annual deforestation. Colombia’s ecosystems are the collateral damage.

The state would supply raw materials to artisanal industries - primarily of indigenous origin - that would produce foods, baking flour, medicinal products and drinks like tea. Those ancestral industries in Colombia haven’t had the chance to develop because the raw material is stigmatized and persecuted by the justice authorities. So, on one hand, it’s about developing these industries. Indigenous groups have a strong relationship with the leaf because they’ve taken care of it for hundreds of years.

The other thing the state would do is produce coc aine. It would supply that coc aine to users. And then it would supply coca and coc aine to research groups around the world who could study it for analgesic (pain-killing) uses. It hasn’t been easy to do that because it hasn’t been easy for these research groups to obtain coc aine. So, this would mean companies would enter into contracts with pharmaceutical companies with state-of-the-art research and top security protocols to buy it in pure form from the state.

Honestly, I feel kind of mixed about this. I've seen coc aine ruin a lot of people's lives. I've seen some pretty terrible things happen to friends of mine and people I know that got hooked on it and personally, I can't stand the way people act when they're on it.

But, the situation in Columbia has been bad for years because of the illegal drug production in the country. The problems aren't getting better the way they've been trying to fight it and coc aine production is bigger than ever in Columbia. This could be an opportunity for Columbia to get on top of it and benefit their economy.

I imagine America will be displeased about this. They send around $800 million/year in aid to Columbia to fight their war on drugs and I suppose the CIA is likely to be upset at losing a huge source of black funds.

The opportunity for reasearch seems like a good thing though. Most illegal drugs are severely under studied due to current laws and however good or bad, more research on something used around the world by lots of people is probably a good thing.

Very interesting, I hope they legalize it. The War on Drugs has never worked and cartels are out of control in some areas. Make it legal and let people decide for themselves.

a reply to: dug88

Round trip tickets are less than $400 right now.

Why will the Americans be angry?

It will still be illegal in the states, but the wholesale price will probably drop, so the CIA will be making even more money for their black projects.

Personally, I feel all illicit drugs should be legalised, and we should allow people to make their own choices. It wouldn’t be my choice of substance, but alcohol destroys more lives and is more addictive than most other substances.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

foreignassistance.gov...

explorer.usaid.gov...

en.wikipedia.org...

In other related news in the near future:

“Unknown accounts from unverified sources, confirm multiple alphabet agencies have toppled the Colombian government....”

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

I dont see how the wholesale price will drop if the Colombian government own all the coc aine. They ain't gonna be selling it for the streets.
If this does happen, the price will go up exponentially.

It proposes that the state buy the entirety of Colombia’s coca harvest.

This will change the World let alone Colombia.

originally posted by: underwerks
a reply to: dug88

Round trip tickets are less than $400 right now.

YEA! If they legalize it, you will no longer have to worry about the negative side effects like addiction and death!
Sounds like a win!

a reply to: dug88



Weimar Germany here we come

a reply to: dug88

They only started the war on drugs when it became more accessible to the masses.

Just say no. Right?

originally posted by: underwerks

Round trip tickets are less than $400 right now.

To Columbia? That is crazy cheap...People just do not understand how BIG South America actually is lol it like 10+ hours of flight time were I live in WA. I see a ticket for 324 round trip...I have worked with their military in the past and growing coca is legal, making the drug is not. Much of the making is done in other countries as Columbia has really cleaned up their act a good deal from days of old, but they grow the crap out of coca, so it makes sense in the end I think as other states go the way of OR.

originally posted by: network dude

YEA! If they legalize it, you will no longer have to worry about the negative side effects like addiction and death!
Sounds like a win!

Countries that have legalized drugs saw significant drop in crime and addiction. With clean drugs and open programs to support abuse it ends up being better overall.

a reply to: dug88

Good for them the CIA is not going to like it.

Its completely ridiculous and very telling how the US gov't declared a war on consenting adults deciding what they want todo with their own body and completely overlooks the sex trade where there are REAL victims.

a reply to: SecretKnowledge

If there is no risk in supplying because it is no longer illegal, the price will definitely drop.

They will make $Billions in taxes, and everybody will be happy.

Well, everybody except the cartels.

a reply to: underwerks

Is that coach or first class? Because if I'm headed south of the border for some nose candy, it better be in style.

I do wonder though, if all countries legalized all products such as this, what do the cartel folks do at that point? I know some organized crime groups have gotten into the ransomware business as that is fairly profitable, but I just don't quite see drug groups pulling off the same type of thing.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

Again

It proposes that the state buy the entirety of Colombia’s coca harvest.

The government will not be selling wholesale.
Without Colombia's coc aine there will be shortage, the price will go up. Exponentially.

a reply to: dug88

I, too, have known lots of people have their lives ruined by the "white liquor" (as Jim Lahey called it). Thing is, i've known more that have had their lives ruined by criminal drug trade and cartel activity.

Lesser of 2 evils i guess.

The thing about addiction to stuff like coc aine is those folks aren't around long enough to drain society. Burn fast, burn bright, burn hot, burn hard...then burn out.

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: network dude

YEA! If they legalize it, you will no longer have to worry about the negative side effects like addiction and death!
Sounds like a win!

Countries that have legalized drugs saw significant drop in crime and addiction. With clean drugs and open programs to support abuse it ends up being better overall.

And that's wonderful. I've always been told that coc aine is very addictive and hard not to do. I've seen friends who got into it, soon moved to selling to finance their habit, then crashed and burned. I chose not to try it so I wouldn't have any idea if it was any good. And amazingly enough, I don't crave it at all.

I'm not against drugs if that's what folks want to do, but when they are destructive ones, I think it's dangerous to portray them as less than harmful. There is a big difference between this one, and some others. It seems the one's that occur naturally are less likely to be damaging. nature for the win.

a reply to: dug88

/ shrug

Their country, their call, not ours. If they think legalizing it would be more effective at stemming their in-country issues, so be it, we're in no place to dictate otherwise and never have been.


200,000 farming families, though. Decades' worth of money, wasted on something utterly impossible to snuff out & ultimately none of our beeswax.

And to cut to the chase with anyone who might say "But the street supply in America!" Yeah, so what. Nobody can control another person's vices. If my neighbor wants to partake and is otherwise an outwardly inoffensive law-abiding citizen harming no one else, then I truly don't care what they do in their downtime.

originally posted by: network dude
I've always been told that coc aine is very addictive and hard not to do.

It's not physically addictive.