During a live, six-hour government meeting, Colombian President Gustavo Petro proposed that legalizing cocaine could help dismantle drug trafficking. He reasoned that cocaine, being produced in Latin America, is unjustly treated as illegal compared to substances like whiskey. His comments occur against the backdrop of Colombia's record coca cultivation, as reported by the UN, and highlight the ongoing drug crisis in both Colombia and the US. Petro also drew attention to fentanyl as a significant cause of American overdose deaths, asserting its origins lie with North American pharmaceutical companies.
"Cocaine is illegal because it is made in Latin America, not because it is worse than whiskey," said Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla movement.
"If somebody wants peace, the business (of drug trafficking) has to be dismantled... It could be easily dismantled if they legalized cocaine in the world. It would be sold like wine."
Petro also pointed out that fentanyl 'is killing Americans and it is not made in Colombia', referring to a drug that is part of the opioid crisis in the US and believed to cause about 70,000 overdose deaths annually.
'Fentanyl was created as a pharmacy drug by North American multinationals' and those who used it 'became addicted,' he added.
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