Bogota – Cocaine “is not worse than whiskey” and is than it is because it comes from Latin America, said Colombian president Gustavo Petro during a live program of a government meeting.
Colombia is the world largest producer and cocaine exporterMainly in the United States and Europe, and has spent decades fighting drug trafficking.
Marckinson Pierre / Reuters
During a six -hour ministerial meeting – broadcast live for the first time – the leftist president said that “cocaine is illegal because it is made in Latin America, not because it is worse than whiskey “.
“Scientists have analyzed this. Cocaine is not worse than whiskey,” he added, suggesting that the world cocaine industry could be “easily dismantled” if drugs were legalized in the world.
“If you want peace, you have to dismantle the business (drug trafficking),” he said. “It could easily be dismantled if they legalize cocaine in the world. It would be sold as wine.”
Petro also stressed that Fentanyl “kills Americans And it is not done in Colombia, “referring to the opioid responsible for around 75,000 deaths in the United States each year, according to official data.
“Fentanyl has been created as a pharmacy medicine by North American multinationals” and those who consumed it, “he added,” he added.
Since coming to power in 2022, Petro has tried to make peace with all the armed groups fed by drug trafficking, in the hope of ending six decades of conflict.
Cocaine production in Colombia reached a record summit in 2023, jumping from 53% to 2,600 tonnes, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
