Colombia govt seeks comment on coca, poppy production proposal

Efforts to investigate the potential uses for coca, poppies and cannabis "would promote the transition from illegal economies to licit ones, the disruption of drug production and the destruction of criminal organizations," the document said. Potential cocaine production in Colombia, whose six-decade internal conflict has been fueled by drug trafficking, rose 24% last year from 2021 to 1,738 metric tonnes, United Nations figures showed.

Colombia's leftist government is studying the possibility of authorizing coca and poppy production for medical, scientific and industrial uses, a draft decree published on Tuesday showed, part of President Gustavo Petro's bid to change drug policy. Limited marijuana production for personal use is already allowed in Colombia, as is production and export of medicinal cannabis products, but an effort to legalize recreational use failed for a fifth time in Congress last week.

Indigenous communities which traditionally use coca are allowed to grow it but not sell it. Petro has said he wants to refocus anti-drug efforts in the Andean country, famous as a source of cocaine, toward harm reduction, rural development, seizures of shipments and destruction of drug trafficking groups, rather than eradication of illegal crops.

The draft document, published for public comment, contemplates authorizing the possession of coca and poppy seeds and the granting of growing licenses. Efforts to investigate the potential uses for coca, poppies and cannabis "would promote the transition from illegal economies to licit ones, the disruption of drug production and the destruction of criminal organizations," the document said.

Potential cocaine production in Colombia, whose six-decade internal conflict has been fueled by drug trafficking, rose 24% last year from 2021 to 1,738 metric tonnes, United Nations figures showed. Investigative and scientific studies should make an effort to include farmer organization and ethnic communities in conflict areas, the document added.

Opposition lawmakers immediately rejected the proposal, saying it was illegal. "This draft, if it became a decree, would directly violate the constitution," said Senator David Luna of the center-right Radical Change party. "It would legalize all criminal structures now dedicated to drug trafficking."

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