Colombian President Gustavo Petro has expressed his views on how to ‘dismantle’ the drug trafficking industry, drawing a comparison between cocaine, whiskey, and fentanyl.
The 2023 Global Report of Cocaine by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reveals that the ‘global supply of cocaine is at record levels’ and highlights that ‘the world’s supply of cocaine originates virtually entirely in South America, specifically in the three countries of Bolivia, Colombia and Peru’.
President Petro has proposed a method to effectively ‘dismantle’ the ‘business’ of drug trafficking.
The report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime states: “In 2021, cultivation in Colombia increased sharply by 43 percent and potential manufacture of cocaine also increased significantly by 14 percent, reaching record levels in both cases.”
“Colombia continues to account for the largest share of the area under coca bush cultivation and potential manufacturing of cocaine,” the report further notes.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports an increase in cocaine-related deaths over the past six years, with 27,569 deaths documented in 2022.
During a six-hour live-streamed government meeting to address the drug issue, Petro claimed that the drug is ‘illegal because it is made in Latin America, not because it is worse than whisky’ and asserted ‘scientists have analyzed this’.
He also compared cocaine to fentanyl, a drug associated with the opioid crisis in the US, which resulted in 73,838 overdose deaths in 2022, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
“[Fentanyl is] killing Americans but it’s not made in Colombia,” Petro remarked, describing fentanyl as ‘created as a pharmacy drug by North American multinationals’.
Petro concluded by stating ‘if somebody wants peace, the business [of drug trafficking] has to be dismantled’.
His proposed solution? “It could be easily dismantled if they legalized cocaine in the world. It would be sold like wine.”
Since taking office in 2022, Petro has been committed to addressing drug trafficking. However, the 2023 UN Office on Drugs and Crime report indicates that ‘the main markets for cocaine worldwide are North America, Western and Central Europe, followed by South and Central America and the Caribbean’ with ‘North America and Western and Central Europe remain the largest destination markets for cocaine’.
The report also details that ‘cultivation doubled between 2013 and 2017, peaked in 2018, and rose sharply again in 2021’.
Nonetheless, the report notes: “In parallel, law enforcement agencies are seizing greater amounts of cocaine. Preliminary figures for 2021 suggest a very sharp rise in seizures. In recent years, seizures showed an underlying upward trend across most regions, punctuated by a ‘bump’ brought about by COVID.”
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