Colombia

Tue, 18 May 2010 09:15:55 +0000

Overview of drug laws, legislative trends and drug policies in Colombia Colombia is in the midst of a peace process with the guerrilla groups, which includes the issue of drugs in the different phase ...

Why coca leaf, not coffee, may always be Colombia’s favourite cash crop

Tue, 28 Mar 2017 16:25:06 +0000

Colombia’s current peace process is facing numerous challenges. In a country that has suffered the worst impacts of the international drug war, one main dilemma is this: what to do with rural regions ...

Confronting Colombia’s coca boom requires patience and a commitment to the peace accords

Tue, 28 Mar 2017 16:00:46 +0000

Colombia is in the midst of a coca boom, perhaps its largest ever. The coca boom’s causes are complex, and Colombia’s government is hoping that the U.S. government will respond in a manner that recog ...

Joint statement

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 11:30:57 +0000

Exactly one year ago, in the 59th session of the CND, the Colombian government urged the international community to openly debate the results obtained during the 50 years of the war on drugs (in the ...

Colombian president signs decree to legalise medical marijuana

Tue, 22 Dec 2015 23:13:00 +0000

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos has signed a decree legalizing the growing and sale of marijuana for medical purposes, a dramatic shift in a country long identified with US-backed policies to ...

Urban drug markets and zones of impunity in Colombia

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 10:21:06 +0000

The retail drug trade has been identified by the authorities as a strategic priority, under the hypothesis that it is one of the main triggers of violence and crime, as well as a response by the crim ...

Drugs, armed conflict and peace

Fri, 15 Aug 2014 10:27:25 +0000

This policy briefing analyses the results of the partial agreement on drugs reached at the talks being held in Havana between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, and the Colombian gover ...

Drugs as war economy and the peace process in Colombia: dilemmas and challenges

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 14:16:44 +0000

The fourth item on the agenda of talks “to end the conflict,” on the issue of drugs, seems to reflect rather a flat and simplistic view of the classic circuit of drug production, processing, traffick ...

The illicit drugs market in the Colombian agrarian context

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:23:16 +0000

The distribution of land and its unjust use are the major causes of violence in Colombia. For this reason land issues are the starting point of current peace talks between the Santos government and t ...

Bogotá’s medical care centres for drug addicts (CAMAD)

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:13:09 +0000

In September 2012, the mayor of Bogotá, Gustavo Petro, launched the first centre for drug addicts in the Bronx, a marginalised city-centre neighbourhood. Called the Medical Care Centre for Dependent ...

Colombia court upholds no jail time for drug use

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:46:21 +0000

Colombia's Constitutional Court has ruled that people cannot be jailed for possessing cocaine and marijuana for personal use. The decision ratifies a previous Supreme Court ruling that said people ca ...

USAID's Alternative Development policy in Colombia

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:37:20 +0000

Alternative Development (AD) must not be part of a militarised security strategy, which is the predominant approach in Colombia. Instead of simply attempting to reduce the area planted with illicit c ...

Alternative development from the perspective of Colombian farmers

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:11:16 +0000

Alternative Development programmes have been widely discussed from the point of view of experts, technocrats, politicians and academics, with advocates and detractors debating whether such programmes ...

Drug Laws and Prisons in Colombia

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:36:03 +0000

During the 20th century, drug policies in Colombia were increasingly repressive, largely ineffective, and heavily influenced by the international legal framework that was put in place. In effect, in ...

Prohibition, a backwards step

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In December 2009, the Congress in Colombia passed a reform to the 1991 Constitution, which considered the possession and consumption of certain quantities of drugs for personal use legal, to enact co ...

Alternative Developments, Economic Interests and Paramilitaries in Uraba

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:32:53 +0000

The following document analyses how the Forest Warden Families Programme and the Productive Projects of the Presidential Programme Against Illegal Crops in Colombia have been used to legalise paramil ...

Cross Purposes

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The anti-drug strategy in Colombia limits the establishment of the basic political conditions necessary to attain the socio-economic goals of alternative development in the midst of war. President Ál ...