Bogotá.- The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, asked Congress this Sunday legalize the cultivation of marijuana as a way to reduce violence in the country, while insisting on the failure of prohibition policies.
"I ask the Colombian Congress to legalize marijuana and remove this crop from violence. The prohibition of marijuana in Colombia only brings violence," wrote the head of state on his X account.
The use of cannabis has been legal in Colombia since 2016, but only for medicinal purposes, and initiatives seeking to reform the Constitution to regulate its consumption for recreational purposes have failed in Congress.
Petro made the request when commenting on the capture last Friday in Barranquilla of Namoussi Mounir, alias 'Mou', accused of being the link between the Balkan cartel and drug traffickers in Latin America, including the Clan del Golfo, the main criminal gang in Colombia.
Alias 'Mou', who lived in Cartagena, was wanted by Belgian authorities on charges of cocaine trafficking and association with a criminal organization, according to an order issued by a judge in that country, according to Colombian police.
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"Today there are much more powerful cartels than in the time of Pablo Escobar. The empowerment of mafia organizations shows the failure of prohibition and the absence of alternative measures to simple prohibition," the Colombian leader said in his writing in X.
In this context, Petro said that his government will continue to fight drug trafficking but that the authorities' efforts will focus on capturing the big bosses and attacking their finances.
"My government will maintain full cooperation with all governments in the matter of cocaine seizures. And it has focused and will focus its action on large shipments and on high-ranking cocaine and money laundering bosses worldwide," he said.
Petro also asked governments to "end the ban on the use of coca leaves for purposes other than cocaine."
According to Petro, Coca leaves can be used in fertilizers, food and other uses and this "improves the policy of substituting illicit goods."
