Colombia: Head of Tax Authority Calls for Legalization of Cocaine

cocaine or other drugs cut with razor blade on mirror. hand dividing white powder narcotic
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Christian K. Caruzo

The Director of Colombia’s National Directorate of Taxes and Customs (DIAN) Luis Carlos Reyes declared on Thursday that it was “time to legalize and tax” cocaine in the South American nation, the world’s top cocaine producer.

Reyes’ comments were accompanied by a quote from Colombian far-left president Gustavo Petro that referenced and shared an article published by the left-wing magazine the Economist on Wednesday that called for the legalization of cocaine, titled “Joe Biden is too timid. It is time to legalise cocaine.”

The article references Petro’s stance towards the deadly drug: In the past he has described it as less poisonous than sugar and less harmful than fossil fuels. Petro used his first address at the United Nations General Assembly to defend the use of the drug.

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 20, 2022. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

Prior to being president of the country, Petro was a member of M-19, a Marxist terrorist organization.

A memorial flame burns at the rebuilt Palace of Justice in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, November 6, 2015. The poster on the wall shows Pedro Elias Serrano, a judge who died in the siege. Rebels from the now-defunct insurgency known as M-19 took the high court hostage November 6, 1985, with the aim of putting then-President Belisario Betancur on trial. (Fernando Vergara/AP)

Reyes was appointed head of Colombia’s tax authority in July shortly before Petro took office in August. Reyes further elaborated on his statement by commenting that Colombia needs to crack down on what he described as “VIP” tax evaders. 

“The way things are, in Colombia we wouldn’t have caught Al Capone neither because he was a smuggler nor because he was an evader,” Reyes said.

Colombia is the world’s biggest producer of the coca bush, producing over 60 percent of the world’s coca employed in the manufacturing of cocaine, according to a report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in June. 

Colombia’s ongoing debate over the decriminalization of drugs took a new turn with the election of Petro to the presidency.

In July, a group of Colombian lawmakers led by Senator Gustavo Bolívar signed a letter in favor of decriminalizing drug use in Colombia, including cocaine, announcing that a bill would be introduced in Congress to that end.

Reyes’ comments calling for the legalization of cocaine drew a series of reactions among Colombian senators. Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal of the Democratic Center party responded by stating,  “They dream of a narco-state. They continue to think that cocaine is not as harmful as hydrocarbons.” 

Hernan Dario Cadavid Marquez, member of Colombia’s House of Representatives, commented via Twitter, “A source of [tax revenue] collection can not be an excuse to legalize destroyers of society such as cocaine. Will they propose to legalize heroin tomorrow?”

Senator Carlos Fernando Motoa commented on the matter, expressing: “Enough of comments that affect the economy, security policies and that generate uncertainty. They want to turn us into a narco-state!”

On the other hand, Senator Bolívar, who expressed his support of decriminalizing cocaine in the past, said, “Today that legal marijuana is a fact, I continue to campaign for the regulation of cocaine,” which he considers to be the only way out of Colombia’s war on drugs.

Currently, a bill is under debate in the Colombian Senate that seeks to legalize the use of cannabis. As of Tuesday, the bill has passed two of the eight debates required before the it becomes law in Colombia. Medicinal use of cannabis was allowed in Colombia during the Presidency of Juan Manuel Santos (2010 – 2018).

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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