What the New Colombian Government Means for Cannabis

True, Thailand’s promise to give away one million cannabis plants may have made for bigger headlines, but late June showed just as momentous a change for cannabis when Gustavo Petro was elected as the first left-wing president of Colombia. Among other reforms, Petro has pledged to break with the nation's longstanding drug policy. While the country’s previous President Ivan Duque pressed forward with piecemeal reforms and medical cannabis, Petro wants to go further by legalizing the plant for all uses, using the development of the industry to wean the country off of fossil fuel export dependency and creating more jobs for a country where 35% of the country lives below the poverty line according to the CIA Factbook.

Petro has been a vocal critic of the war on drugs, which he believes has been a failure. He has proposed legalizing cannabis as a means to wrest back market share from Canadian and Israeli firms which currently operate in the region. As he told Semana magazine, “After so many deaths, so much imprisonment, so much venom, so much demonization that Colombian society has suffered because of this issue, it turns out that it is other countries that are going to keep the billions of dollars from this business.”

What shape this new industry will take depends on the deals Petro will strike with his Parliament, which includes moderate voices that may temper his ambitions. If Petro follows through on his campaign promises, it could mean big changes for the cannabis industry in Colombia. The country could become a major player in the global cannabis market, with its large cultivation area, relatively inexpensive labor and favorable climate for growing the plant.

Emerging from a Troubled Past

For any American who grew up in the ‘80s or who binge-watched Narcos, Colombia will always be connected to the infamous cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar. However, before Mexico overtook it, Colombia was the number one exporter of cannabis to the United States. With legendary strains such as Santa Marta Gold and Punto Rojo — strains which Jim Belushi traveled to Colombia to source in Season Two of Growing Belushi — Colombia’s flower still inspires international tourism from connoisseurs willing to sample what is still a homegrown industry dominated by campesinos. Colombia’s position just south of major US shipping ports like Miami and New Orleans, not to mention the money to be made, encouraged many growers to jump over into growing cannabis.

Since 1994, the Colombian government has liberalized cannabis drug use within the country considerably, from decriminalizing possession for up to 20 grams of cannabis to legalizing homegrow of up to 20 plants. However, two major political developments transpired in 2016 which set the stage for what’s happening now. The first was a historic truce between the Colombian Government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, who had for decades held much of the drug-producing rural territory. The second was Law 1787, which regulated the cultivation, production, processing and commercialization of medical and scientific cannabis. However, despite these developments, Colombia’s former President Ivan Duque all but closed the door on an adult-use industry, which left many of the legacy growers in the lurch for the export-driven medical market.

What to Expect

Porto has been a proponent of cannabis legalization throughout his political career. In addition to ending cannabis prohibition, he also seeks to end the War on Drugs. In particular, he hopes to encourage a shift away from the coca plants from which cocaine is derived towards both hemp and cannabis. As a former guerilla fighter, Porto also has pledged to hold peace talks with other guerilla fighters that have taken over portions of the drug trade from FARC, which before the truce played a key role in trafficking.

Only time will tell how far Petro will take his industry. But major reform is coming, and with most of those newly elected in general support, it’s possible that this country of 50 million may be the next major country alongside Germany and Mexico to legalize, which will be great news for cannabis connoisseurs everywhere.