Is it or is it not the time?
Should the president speak before the United Nations General Assembly about the urgent need to change the focus of the fight against drugs to see if this will exhaust the fuel for the war that has been drowning Colombians for decades?
If there is one thing that seems indisputable, it is that time will never be in favor of a president – whoever he may be – who aims to lead an issue as complex and difficult to negotiate as ending the so-called “war on drugs” to turn that into a matter of public health and regulation at the international level.
Perhaps it is too pessimistic, but four years is a short time for the head of a medium-sized state with little impact on the international scene, such as Colombia, to change the inertia that has characterized the fight against drug trafficking networks for decades. and the persecution (yes, less and less voracious) against consumers.
Hence my question: is it or is it not the time?
It has transpired that the speech that President Petro will make in New York has a focus mainly on the environment, the protection of the Amazon rainforest and the necessary efforts to try to contain the climate emergency we are facing.
As far as little or nothing is known, it will speak of a new approach in the fight against drugs, although it must be recognized that combating deforestation has a key component in the control of areas dedicated to illicit crops.
However, is it enough to draw attention to that point for the world to start thinking about changing the word “prohibition” to “regulation”?
In a document published by the Center for Studies on Security and Drugs of the University of the Andes, the Social Technical Action Corporation, the Dejusticia think tank and the Ideas for Peace Foundation, they make a series of recommendations to the president to advance holistic approach to a new drug policy.
In the memorandum, they propose to the Government short, medium and long-term plans to implement institutional, territorial, criminal and public health policies that allow opening the door to a new approach in the treatment given to production, marketing and consumption. of narcotics.
The experts also dedicate a section to the steps that must be taken in diplomatic and international political matters.
In the short term, they raise the urgent need to renegotiate coca crop reduction goals with the United States and focus this work on goals related to crop reduction in environmentally strategic areas.
So far, it seems that experts and the president's speech at the UN are on the same line.
But it does not stop seeming somewhat shy in the face of the tremendous challenge that lies ahead.
Is it time to say things up front?
If you want to advance on the path of the so-called Total Peace, is it not necessary to leave on the table that it will be impossible to achieve as long as the drug trafficking mafias continue to exist?
If Colombia ever aspires to achieve the long-awaited peace, the first thing that must be done is to speak frankly and fearlessly about our problems.
Deforestation?
Yes, it is one of them.
But the deaths that we count every day, the corruption that suffocates us and the poison that kills our democracy only have one name: drug trafficking.
I hope the president does not forget it before the UN.