March 3 (UPI) — Colombia President Gustavo Petro is calling on his country’s Congress to legalize marijuana, saying its prohibition “only brings violence” from cartels.
“I ask the Colombian Congress to legalize marijuana and remove violence from this crop. The prohibition of marijuana in Colombia only brings violence,” Petro wrote Sunday in a post on X, according to a translation.
Petro also called on other nations to legalize coca leaves “for purposes other than cocaine,” following the recent arrest of Namoussir Mounir, a Belgian citizen accused of drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe.
“The fall of Namoussir Mounir, a liaison between Colombian and Mexican cartels and cartels from the Balkans, who lived in Cartagena, shows the degree of multi-nationalization of the cocaine mafias,” Petro said.
“I ask the governments of the world to end the ban on the use of coca leaves for purposes other than cocaine at the United Nations,” he added. “If coca leaves are used in fertilizers, food and other uses, the policy of substitution of illicit crops improves.”
Cocaine and cannabis use in Columbia is not criminalized, but regulations prohibit it under certain circumstances. Personal use is limited to 20 grams of marijuana and one gram of cocaine.
Last year, after 13 failed attempts, the Colombian Senate rejected a new proposal to legalize the recreational use of cannabis.
Petro has long maintained that legalized regulations are more effective than outright prohibition. Last month, he called cocaine “not worse than whiskey” and argued armed and violent cartels could be “easily dismantled” if the drug were legalized and their main source of revenue cut off.
“The empowerment of mafia organizations shows the failure of prohibition and the absence of alternative measures to simple prohibition,” Petro said. “Today there are much more powerful cartels than in the time of Pablo Escobar.”
“My government will maintain full cooperation with all governments in the matter of confiscating cocaine,” Petro vowed. “And it has focused and will focus its action on large shipments and on high-ranking cocaine and money laundering bosses worldwide.”
La caída de Namoussir Mounir, enlace entre carteles colombianos y mexicanos con carteles de los balcanes, quien residía en Cartagena, muestra el grado de multinacionalización de las mafias de la cocaína.
Hoy existen carteles mucho más poderosos que en le época de Pablo Escobar…. pic.twitter.com/VwZUxdsZBR— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) March 2, 2025
