COLOMBIA-DRUGS/CONFERENCE Colombia's Santos calls for less punitive approach in fighting drugs at global forum

Record ID: 149851

  • Title: COLOMBIA-DRUGS/CONFERENCE Colombia's Santos calls for less punitive approach in fighting drugs at global forum
  • Date: 3rd June 2015
  • Summary: GUAVIARE, COLOMBIA (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FIELD ERADICATION OF ILLEGAL DRUG CULTIVATION
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Colombia
  • Country: Colombia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7EZUVEYXKDVJUK14AY3XQ3RN2
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Colombia is hoping to lead a charge around the globe to reform how governments combat the illegal drug trade, the South American country's president announced Tuesday (June 2) during the opening of a global drugs summit in Cartagena.
    Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is hosting the 23rd International Conference for the Control of Drugs (IDEC) that is being attended by delegates representing some 127 countries. Santos, a former economist and defence secretary, urged countries to provide a more holistic approach less focused on mass incarceration in combatting narcotrafficking. Among the strategies he pushed in Cartagena were efforts to help provide farmers with sustainable economic substitutes and manual eradication programmes.
    Two weeks ago, Bogota announced it would halt mass aerial fumigations of coca leaf through the glyphosate herbicide.
    Colombia has long been a major hub in the global cocaine market, with 309 tons (280 tonnes) coming out of the Andean nation each year, according to the United Nations.
    Santos dismissed his critics who said the policy change would invite an uptick in illicit drug output.
    "We need - and when I say 'need,' I am talking about the whole world - a new focus to confront the drug problem. This focus ought to be the result of a rigourous discussion, based on evidence, not preconceived notions, led by experts, and above all, void of political and ideological limits," he said.
    Santos said some 995,000 people have been arrested in Colombia since 1993 on drugs-related charges, and that harsh encarcerations and mass fumigations have done little to help rural farmers find a sustainable path out of drugs.
    He emphasised as well that Colombia has no plans to let down its guard when combatting the drug trade, but is better served by disincentivising the drug trade.
    "What we want now is to even more manual eradication, and more than anything else, launch a more effective substitution strategy for cultivations, which we have to recognise as Colombians we've never properly done, (a strategy) that doesn't only offer an alternative product for the rural farmers who stop cultivating the coca drug, but guarantees a better life for the communities, along with a more visible state presence," he said.
    Santos is also currently leading peace talks to try and bring Colombia's half-century internal conflict to an end. The fight against drugs is one of the terms the government and the rebels have been able to agree upon, and Santos reiterated that in Colombia, the drug trade can be improved by the resolution of its conflict.
    In total, Colombia has been able to reduce the area in which the primary materials are harvested in the country by about a third since 2000. Manual eradication promises to be slower and more costly.
    The United Nations is planning a special session on drugs and crime for 2016.
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