Anti-Drug Policies in Colombia

Jimmy Weiskopf

Description

Forty years after the declaration of the "war on drugs" by President Nixon, the debate on the effectiveness and costs of the ban is red-hot. Several former Latin American presidents and leading intellectuals from around the world have drawn attention to the ineffectiveness and adverse consequences of prohibitionism. This book thoroughly analyzes the drug policies of one of the main protagonists in this war.

The book covers many topics: the economics of drug production, the policies to reduce consumption and decrease supply during the Plan Colombia, the effects of the drug problem on Colombia's international relations, the prevention of money laundering, the connection between drug trafficking and paramilitary politics, and strategies against organized crime. Beyond the diversity in topics, there is a common thread running through all the chapters: the need to analyze objectively what works and what does not, based on empirical evidence. Presented here for the first time to an English-speaking audience, this book is a contribution to a debate that urgently needs to transcend ideology and preconceived opinions.

Sujets

• Latin American Studies
• Public Policy
• Droit et juridique
• Law
• International

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 23 janvier 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780826520739
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

ANTI-DRUG POLICIES IN COLOMBIA
A Vanderbilt University Center for Latin American Studies volume.
Edward G. Fischer, director
Anti-Drug Policies in Colombia: Successes, Failures, and Wrong Turns ,
edited by Alejandro Gaviria and Daniel Mejía (2016)
ANTI-DRUG POLICIES IN COLOMBIA
Successes, Failures, and Wrong Turns
Edited by Alejandro Gaviria and Daniel Mejía
Translated by Jimmy Weiskopf
Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville
Translation © 2016 by Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville, Tennessee 37235
All rights reserved
Originally published as Políticas antidroga en Colombia: Éxitos, fracasos y extravíos by Ediciones Uniandes, Bogotá, Colombia, in April 2011. Copyright 2011 by Alejandro Gaviria and Daniel Mejía (contributing editors) and Universidad de los Andes.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Translation coordinator: Nicolas Vaughan
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file
LC control number 2014045942
LC classification number HV5840.C7A5813 2015
Dewey class number 362.29’1609861—dc23
ISBN 978-0-8265-2071-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-8265-2073-9 (ebook)
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
Part I. Dimension of the Drug Problem in Colombia: Production, Trafficking, and Consumption
1. The Microeconomics of Cocaine Production and Trafficking in Colombia: Estimates Updated through 2012
Daniel Mejía and Daniel M. Rico
2. Drug Consumption in Colombia
Adriana Camacho, Alejandro Gaviria, and Catherine Rodríguez
Part II. Policies for the Reduction of Supply and Demand
3. Anti-Drug Policies under Plan Colombia: Costs, Effectiveness, and Efficiency
Daniel Mejía
4. Alternative Development Policies in Colombia (1982–2009)
Carlos Zorro-Sánchez
5. Demand as a Drama: The Prevention and Treatment of Drug Use in Colombia
Jorge Larreamendy-Joerns and María Fernanda Vence
Part III. International Relations and Anti-Drug Policies in Colombia
6. Colombia’s Multilateral Drug Policy during the Two Uribe Administrations: Toward Prohibitionist Activism in an Era of Détente
Sandra Borda
7. Colombia and Europe Face the Drug Problem: Disagreement Yet Cooperation
Muriel Laurent
8. The Role of Illegal Drugs in Colombia–US Relations
Arlene Beth Tickner and Carolina Cepeda
Part IV. Legal and Institutional Aspects of the War on Drugs
9. The Consumer’s Right to a “Personal Dose” and the War on Drugs: A Study of the Policing of Drug Consumption in Bogotá, Colombia
Julieta Lemaitre and Mauricio Albarracín
10. The Penal Treatment of Narcotics Trafficking and Associated Crimes
Manuel Iturralde and Libardo José Ariza
11. The Fight against Money Laundering: Institutions, Results, and Disincentives
Carlos Caballero and Alfonso Amaya
Part V. Institutions and Narcotics Trafficking
12. Colombian Institutions and Narcotics Trafficking: Mutations and Politics
Álvaro Camacho
13. Illegal Crops, Political Participation, and Institutional Trust
Miguel García
14. The Failure of Decentralization in the War on Drugs
Juan Carlos Echeverry and María Paula Gómez
15. Violent Nonstate Actors and Narcotics Trafficking in Colombia
Arlene Beth Tickner, Diego García, and Catalina Arreaza
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First of all, we would like to thank the former rector of Universidad de los Andes, Dr. Carlos Angulo Galvis, who came up with the idea of creating this book. During the process of its realization, Dr. Angulo gave us his constant support and guided us toward the objective which he himself had formulated: to undertake an academic publication that would allow Universidad de los Andes to contribute to an objective, constructive, and informed debate on a subject that is crucial for the future of Colombia. We would also like to express our thanks and acknowledgments to former president of Colombia, César Gaviria Trujillo, who supported this project in many ways and stimulated our interest in and curiosity about an in-depth treatment of the subjects dealt with in this book. We would further like to thank the general manager of the Central Bank of Colombia (Banco de la República), Dr. José Darío Uribe Escobar, and the Open Society Institute for the partial funding of this book.
During the first semester of 2010 at the University de los Andes two events were held in which the preliminary versions of the chapters were presented and discussed. We would like to especially thank the former director of the National Police (Policía Nacional de Colombia), General Óscar Naranjo, for his participation in both events, as well as that of other persons who have been actively involved in the formulation of anti-drug policies in Colombia, among them Ómar Figueroa, Sergio Jaramillo, Alberto Lozano, Inés Elvira Mejía, Augusto Pérez, and Ricardo Vargas. Academics of international renown also participated in these events. Among them, it is worth mentioning Jonathan Caulkins of Carnegie Mellon University, Beau Kilmer of RAND, Elvira María Restrepo of the University of Miami, Peter Reuter of the University of Maryland, and Juan Tokatlian of the Torcuato Di Tella University.
This book would not have been possible without the active and enthusiastic participation of the twenty-four authors of the fifteen chapters that compose it. To all of them we would like to express our sincerest thanks for their effort to bring this project to completion and their infinite patience in complying with all the requirements needed for its publication. We would also like to thank Felipe Castañeda, general editor of Ediciones Uniandes, and his work team, made up of Eduardo Franco, Felipe Rubio, Carolina Mazo, and Alejandra Muñoz. Their support and cooperation was indispensable in turning the publication of this book into a reality. Finally we would like to thank Guillermo Díez, who revised the final version of the Spanish manuscript with a critical eye, along with María José Uribe.
PREFACE
The publication of this book represents a landmark in the manner of confronting the problem of illegal drugs in Colombia. In the course of three decades, Colombia has acted in line with the prohibitionist policies promoted by the United States, generally based on the war against drugs inaugurated by President Richard Nixon forty years ago. No country in the world has paid as high a cost as Colombia in terms of the lives of its political leaders, judges, police officers, soldiers, journalists, and tens of thousands of innocent civilians, nor suffered a graver damage to its democratic institutions.
Is it fair that this happens in the name of a failed and worn-out policy? The same thing is happening in Mexico, where the deaths run into tens of thousands. Our country has paid an immeasurable economic cost in this still unfinished fight against narco-terrorism. Even during the period when we have received significant aid from the United States, under what is known as Plan Colombia, nine out of ten dollars have come from the Colombian government, according to the United States Congressional Budget Office.
The moment has come to evaluate the results of this strategy, which has so few results to show beyond statistics about interdiction efforts, drugs seizures, the persecution of drugs cartels, deaths, and prisoners in jails. Nothing has been achieved in reducing consumption in the United States, by far the biggest market for drugs. It is just the opposite: the use of methamphetamines has shot up and more people are addicted to this drug now than to cocaine. There the US government has just officially dropped the term “war on drugs” because it does not allow for the designing of effective policies. The US government has said that the strategy of controlling the problem through the reduction of supply does not work and that the only viable solution is to reduce consumption by 15 percent during the Obama administration. More than 70 percent of the population in the United States thinks that the war on drugs has failed. President Obama said it himself in his campaign for the Senate. And the growing tolerance toward the use of marijuana is evident, to the point where many people, even unconditional adherents of prohibitionism, believe that its legalization is just a matter of time.
The United States has made an extraordinary effort in the battle against all illegal drugs. The problem is that the $40 billion in question is spent more on judicial, police, and prison system than on policies for treatment and prevention. More people are imprisoned for narcotics trafficking in the United States (more than 500,000) than those jailed for all crimes in the Europe as a whole. When the war began there were 50,000 such prisoners; now the figure has multiplied by ten, without any visible effects on consumption. It is frankly incredible that $450,000 is spent each year on the jailing of a youngster who, at worst, once tried marijuana. Despite that, 60 percent of US prisoners use marijuana, according to the latest study by the Inter-American Dialogue.
From my own experience on the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, I learned that, except for Sweden, European countries do not jail consumers because they regard consumption as a health problem and not as a crime. That policy is much less harmful and onerous for that continent and has a much lower social, economic, and institutional cost. These countries do not mai