Colombia has been quietly active in the medical cannabis export business. I am not sure if medical cannabis is available locally for the people, especially the poorest classes and indigenous communities, but Colombia appears to be exporting cannabis to Brazil, Australia and Germany for the elites in those countries to avail of it. This is most likely the surplus cannabis that the elites in Colombia have not consumed as 'medical cannabis'. The poor and the indigenous communities in Colombia possibly have illegal opiates, coca, methamphetamine, opioids, prescription synthetic pharmaceutical drugs and the legal drugs alcohol and tobacco on offer, that is if they can access and afford it. MJBizDaily reported in April 2024 that 'Colombia’s medical cannabis exports continued to grow last year, although sales still haven’t reached the level that the country’s operators envisioned. In 2023, the value of medical cannabis exports from Colombia was $10.8 million, according to figures provided to MJBizDaily by ProColombia, a government agency in charge of promoting nontraditional Colombian trade. The figure represents an 11.3% increase over 2022, when Colombia’s medical cannabis exports amounted to $9.7 million, a 96% jump from 2021. The top destinations for Colombia’s exports have been changing as rules evolve in other countries. Brazil was the top destination for Colombia’s medical cannabis products in 2023, overtaking Argentina, according to the ProColombia data shared with MJBizDaily. Brazil accounted for 32%, or $3.4 million, of Colombia’s total cannabis exports last year. Australia accounted for one-quarter of the exports, or $2.68 million, a 99% increase over 2022. Germany was the third-largest importer of Colombian cannabis, with $1.53 million, or 14% of the total.'
The medical cannabis industry in Colombia was kickstarted by autocratic leader Ivan Duque, who launched a massive 'war on drugs' in collusion with the US DEA so as to crack down on mostly cannabis and anything else that was at risk of slipping out of the hands of the elites to the lower classes and indigenous communities. On Duque's 'war on drugs' Panam Post reported that 'Colombian president Iván Duque recently signed a decree that allows the national police to confiscate any quantity of drugs found in public. However, according to experts, this measure will not achieve its public health goal of reducing consumption, and will also negatively impact the medicinal use of cannabis.' AP News reported that 'Riot police have broken up a pro-marijuana demonstration in Colombia’s capital city, as the South American country takes a harder stance on drugs.' The war on drugs by Ivan Duque, aimed specifically at recreational use of cannabis, soon angered different sections of society, with even the judiciary questioning the move. Colombia Reports stated around this time that 'The former President of Colombia’s Constitutional Court said Monday that a decree by President Ivan Duque to persecute marijuana users “goes against the constitution.”' Huge amounts of cannabis crops were decimated in joint action by the governments of the US and Colombia. Many farmers were intimidated, arrested, threatened and possibly harmed. The harms to indigenous communities and to the indigenous varieties of cannabis is largely unknown. The United Nations Office of Drug Control, in its World Drug Report 2020, stated that 'Over the period 2008–2018, the largest cannabis herb seizures worldwide took place in the United States, followed by Mexico, Paraguay, Colombia, Nigeria, Morocco, Brazil, India and Egypt.' So, the opposition posed by cannabis to cocaine and heroin was systematically dealt with by the establishment.
In August 2021, when it was clear that the fake pandemic Covid - created by the elites to consolidate the wealth of the synthetic pharmaceutical, medical and petrochemical industries - had run its course, it appears that Duque took steps to shore up his position among the elites of Colombia by passing a decree that dried cannabis flower i.e. ganja could be cultivated for export and use locally as medical cannabis. MJBizDaily reported that 'Colombian President Ivan Duque signed a decree into law that will expand revenue opportunities for domestic cannabis businesses inside and outside the country, a move some industry sources say could resuscitate a sector that has not yet come close to meeting expectations. Duque’s decree lifts the prohibition on the export of dried medical marijuana and potentially expands distribution locally'. MSN reported in September 2021 that 'Colombian President Ivan Duque made headlines in July when he signed a directive allowing the export of dried cannabis flower from his country, among numerous other changes, that opened up the Colombian cannabis industry. This change has positioned Colombia as a prime supplier to what may become a global market for cannabis if cannabis lobbyists in the European Union and the United States have anything to say about it. Many cannabis companies are looking at globalization in the cannabis space as an inevitability and are preparing their supply chain and brand portfolio to capitalize on this emerging sector.' This may have been sufficient to please the elites in Europe, Canada and Australia because none of these elite countries that have traditionally opposed cannabis can grow it on scales large enough to meet their domestic demand. The elite countries of the world depend on South America, Asia and Africa for good quality cannabis. An example of how the medical cannabis business benefited mainly the elites and the pharmaceutical industry can be seen from the report by MJBizDaily which said, 'The announcement of imminent domestic sales is particularly positive for Khiron, which is headquartered in Toronto but primarily operates in Colombia. The company has been focusing on establishing domestic medical infrastructure to serve Colombian patients, whereas competitors have largely positioned themselves to capitalize on low-cost production for export opportunities. So far, those opportunities have not materialized for high-THC products. Khiron “anticipates fulfilling its first prescriptions of full-spectrum, high-CBD formulations within days,” the company said in a news release Friday, adding that it foresees a market developing with about 6 million potential patients for medical cannabis products in Colombia.' This was, however, not sufficient to please the masses in Colombia for whom medical cannabis means absolutely nothing but a term used by the elites to justify their own cannabis use while calling the cannabis use by the poorer sections of society as 'drug abuse'. Duque has since been replaced by a politician who appears to be more liberal in terms of cannabis policies.
The new Colombian President Gustavo Petro has been vocal against the hypocrisy of the US federal government which through its DEA works closely with the Colombian drug cartels and elites of Colombia and the US. On a visit to New York, which has legalized recreational cannabis, Petro is reported by Marijuana Moment as saying, 'Unveiling Colombia’s new national drug policy recently, President Gustavo Petro recalled smelling the odor of marijuana wafting through the streets of New York City during a recent visit to the U.S., remarking on the “enormous hypocrisy” of legal cannabis sales now taking place in the nation that launched the global drug war decades ago. “Marijuana is sold today in Times Square,” Petro said, according to a translation of his speech. “It smelled on all the streets, all the way around the corner, and they sold it…like any other product. I suppose they charge taxes and that New York City or the state of New York lives partially from them.” “That’s where the war on drugs began,” Petro continued, calling out the U.S.’s lead role in globalizing the drug war more than 50 years ago. “How many people have been imprisoned? How many people have died? Because undoubtedly illegality brought violence.”' These sound like welcome words to the hundreds of millions of cannabis users and growers globally, and in Colombia, who have felt the brunt of the global war on drugs which is essentially a veiled attack by the global elites on cannabis. It remains to be seen if Gustavo Petro will do the right thing and completely legalize recreational cannabis like his neighbours Uruguay and other nations like Canada, Germany and South Africa have done. Only then will his words have meaning, and will he be different from his predecessors and the 'hypocrites' in the US. Otherwise, Colombia will be just like Mexico, another nation that has widespread support for cannabis legalization - with even the Mexican Supreme Court in favor of it - but firmly in the grip of the drug cartels and corrupt politicians who work with the US elites to keep cannabis banned so that the fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin businesses can thrive.
Colombia appears to be working on genetically developing varieties of cannabis for tropical climates that can be grown in South American conditions. Ecuador appears to be one of the leading importers of Colombia's genetically modified cannabis seeds. The process seems to be smoother in Colombia compared to the EU for registering and certifying new cultivars. Hemp Industry Daily reported in 2020 that 'Unlike the EU, the process to register and certify a cultivar in Colombia is faster – about six months in some cases. “If we can develop those genetics and produce on a large scale in Colombia for those companies that are in the business of breeding and selling seeds, it’s a tremendous opportunity, and it’s a tremendous benefit to cannabis globally,” Douglas said. In fact, Ecuador legalized medical cannabis late last year and finds itself in the same position as Colombia with a 12-hour-daylight cycle. Ecuador will rely on its neighbor for seeds.' From all this, it is evident that if South America completely legalizes cannabis, the South American cannabis industry will boom, much like Asia and Africa. The South American cannabis industry is taking small, but significant, steps to ensure that the infrastructure is in place for this. However, it seems lamentable to me that Colombia is looking at genetic interventions to create new cultivars when the focus should be on finding, protecting and nurturing the indigenous varieties that I am sure exist in Colombia. These varieties are most likely to be found among the indigenous communities that have a long history of cannabis usage. It will be these indigenous varieties of Colombian ganja that will differentiate it from the rest of the world when cannabis goes completely legal globally and the global trade in cannabis reaches its peak with many nations vying with each other in the cannabis market. Laboratory-created varieties of cannabis can be re-created anywhere in the world and the world already has too many synthetics which is at the root of the problem of global cannabis prohibition. Until 2019, Colombian businessmen were cultivating cannabis in neighbouring Uruguay and exporting it to other nations. Hemp Industry Daily reported that 'Campo said the plan is to form a “joint venture with a company in the U.S. or anywhere in the world” that wants hemp or marijuana cultivars from Uruguay, where the hemp is grown. Currently the Sannabis hemp farm has nearly 27 acres to plant, with room to grow cannabis under contract for interested companies, Campo said. Campo also said his company has applied to register some 150 cannabis strains in Colombia and awaits approval. However, Colombia doesn’t allow the export of raw cannabis flower, so the plants will have to be exported from Uruguay. About a dozen companies had licenses to grow hemp in Uruguay as of September 2019.'
If there is any country in the world that is synonymous with cocaine, then it is Colombia. Like the cannabis plant in India until the 19th century, the coca plant in Colombia was an inherent part of the medicine, intoxication, stimulant and spiritual culture of the indigenous communities for possibly thousands of years. Europeans who took over the land prohibited the natural coca plant, even as they synthesized cocaine from it and took it back to Europe. Personalities like Sigmund Freud glorified cocaine until it became a rage amongst the white man and a symbol of class superiority. The demand and profits from cocaine were so high that the elites decided to control the plant and prevent the indigenous communities from using it in its natural form. This was in addition to getting the indigenous communities addicted to the favorite drug of the European, opium, and training the locals to cultivate opium for the heroin which was taken back to Europe. The heroin angle is the same, whether we are talking about Colombia, India or China and the perpetrators of the massive crimes against the people and nature are the same - the elites of the world. For the people of Colombia, as with the people of India and China, things are as bad as it has been for a long time. The natural coca plant, which was a source of recreation and stimulation, for vast numbers of its people for a long time, was prohibited. In the 20th century, federal US government's sustained pressure to prohibit cannabis had the effect of streamlining the supply chain that provided it access to cocaine and heroin from Colombia. Access to opium from the Middle East and China being increasingly difficult, especially with the voracious appetite of Europe and the Middle East, places like Colombia presented a more attractive option. So, in the name of protecting people from harm, the Colombian government in partnership with the federal US government and its drug enforcement arm, the DEA, destroyed a traditional, healthy and safe way of life through cannabis, paving the way for the introduction of cocaine and heroin both in Colombia and in the US. Over a period of time, huge and powerful cartels were formed, armed to the teeth with US made and supplied weapons, controlling the manufacture, distribution and sale of cocaine and heroin. Now whether this was an unintended result of overzealous action by the US and Colombian governments, or if it was a carefully crafted strategy to sideline cannabis, the drug of the poor natives, and to replace it with cocaine and heroin, far more interesting to affluent urban American and Colombian people, is a matter of speculation. With cocaine, however, it was found that the coca plant did not grow so easily anywhere outside South America. Hence, the importance of Colombia for the elites of the world in the cocaine scheme of things. In September 2020, LA Times reported a bill in Colombia to regulate the coca plant and its synthetic product cocaine. It said, 'If the bill were enacted, farmworkers would sell their coca harvests to the national government, which would keep tabs on illicit market rates in hopes of preventing sales to traffickers for a higher profit. Then the government would control cocaine distribution through its health network. Adults would be limited to one gram of cocaine per week. Additionally, because some Indigenous groups have used the coca crop for millennia, most often chewed raw for energy and to treat ailments, the proposed legislation would permit the production for ancestral purposes. The pharmaceutical and nonpsychoactive use of coca, such as in food products, would also be allowed.' It appears that the government wanted to rein in illegal cultivation and production so that the elites of the world would not lose out on their precious cocaine. The way that the bill was positioned was to make it appear that the government was working for the people, especially the indigenous communities. If public health, especially of the poorest classes, the indigenous communities and the outcasts of society is a primary concern for the Colombian government, then it would completely legalize the coca plant and the cannabis plant in their natural forms so that people can use it as they did in the past. It is only the synthesis into cocaine that needs the kind of tight regulation that exists today for the entire coca plant. This will reduce harms to public health as well as improve the livelihoods of many poor farmers in Colombia. It will shrink the black market for drugs. It will also reduce the load on law and drug enforcement and other regulators to focus on the drugs that cause the real harm - the synthetic products of the legal and illegal synthetic pharmaceutical laboratory. This probably applies as much to the opium plant as it does to the cannabis and coca plants. But then, making these policy changes is essentially taking the power out of the hands of the elites and transferring it to the people which is something that the upper classes and castes everywhere vehemently oppose. The US government released a statement in October 2021 regarding how it was working with the Colombian government to ensure that the elites got their cocaine and the indigenous communities would be kept away from the coca plant. The statement said, 'In addition to programs that expand the presence and the services of the state, the discussions focused on improving citizen security, interrupting drug trafficking supply chains, sustaining coca eradication, and interdicting chemical precursors and cocaine. To reduce money laundering and strengthen asset forfeiture, the two sides also agreed to focus on reducing illicit cash transactions, prioritize arrests, prosecutions, and extraditions of key traffickers and their enablers, and strengthen the judicial system. Both governments underscored the importance of Colombia’s integrated security and rural development program, as well as the reduction of illicit crops, which combines not only supply reduction, but also the creation of licit opportunities and strengthening of roads and productive infrastructure to contribute to the rural development with an emphasis in the Territorial Development Plans areas (PDETs). Both sides also expressed support for the “Future Zones,” a development and security approach that contains a long-term vision for territorial transformation, a culture of lawfulness, licit economies and advancing rural Colombia’s transition to peace.' The damage that the illicit cultivation of coca primarily for synthesis into cocaine is evident from a Sierra Club report that said, 'A 2019 report from WOLA, a human rights advocacy group in Latin America, outlines in detail the damage that glyphosate inflicts on the water table in the regions it is used as well as what WOLA describes as "triple deforestation." Here's how it works: Forests are cleared to adapt the land for the illicit crops. Then, aerial fumigation directly causes indiscriminate deforestation and damage to food crops before, finally, growers flee to new regions to plant again, launching new cycles of deforestation all over again. Official figures from the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Environmental Studies in Colombia indicate that deforestation reached 124,035 hectares (over 300,000 acres) in 2015 as a direct result of this program. And a great deal of coca is grown in the Amazon region of the country, where delicate rainforest ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to the damage caused to the water table and to indiscriminate defoliation'
In September 2021, the then US President Joe Biden issued a statement from the White House saying, 'The United States is committed to working together with the countries of the Western Hemisphere as neighbors and partners to meet our shared challenges of drug trafficking and use. My Administration will seek to expand cooperation with key partners, such as Mexico and Colombia, to shape a collective and comprehensive response and expand efforts to address the production and trafficking of dangerous synthetic drugs that are responsible for many of our overdose deaths, particularly fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and methamphetamine. In Mexico, we must continue to work together to intensify efforts to dismantle transnational criminal organizations and their networks, increase prosecutions of criminal leaders and facilitators, and strengthen efforts to seize illicit assets. In Bolivia, I encourage the government to take additional steps to safeguard the country’s licit coca markets from criminal exploitation and reduce illicit coca cultivation that continues to exceed legal limits under Bolivia’s domestic laws for medicinal and traditional use. In addition, the United States will look to expand cooperation with China, India, and other chemical source countries in order to disrupt the global flow of synthetic drugs and their precursor chemicals.' When one remembers that it is precisely the federal prohibition of cannabis in the US, Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, China and India that has led to the widespread proliferation of methamphetamine and fentanyl, and that the US is the world's largest market for methamphetamine and fentanyl, besides cocaine and heroin, then one can see the hypocrisy in the statements of these politicians. Joe Biden departed in January 2024, having failed to deliver on most of his cannabis related promises including pardoning and releasing prisoners and undertrials for cannabis. He instead pardoned his cocaine using son Hunter. To top it, the returning US president, the senile psychopathic imbecile Donald Trump pardoned the creator of the Silk Road, once the largest black-market network for drugs, among other things. The Colombian government recognizes the threat the fentanyl poses to its lucrative heroin business. This may be one of the reasons why it has tied up with the US to crack down on fentanyl. The United Nations Office of Drug Control (UNODC) stated in its World Drug Report 2020 that 'There is a great incentive for trafficking organizations to expand the fentanyl market: the large associated revenues. Compared with heroin, the production costs of single-dose fentanyls are substantially lower. For instance, it may cost between $1,400 and $3,500 to synthesize 1 kg of fentanyl, which could bring a return of between $1 million and $1.5 million from street sales. For comparison, 1 kg of heroin purchased from Colombia may cost $5,000 to $7,000,99 around $53,000 at the wholesale level in the United States and around $400,000 at the retail level in the United States. With fentanyls, the logistics for supply are also more flexible because fentanyls can be manufactured anywhere and are not subject to the climatic conditions or the vulnerable conditions required for the largescale cultivation of opium poppy.'
Colombia has been synonymous with cocaine, heroin and the associated drug cartels for some time now. Recently, the country has lost some of its sheen, or should I say taint, to the methamphetamine and fentanyl cartels of Mexico and the Far East and the heroin cartels of Asia. A large reason has been that the most voracious consumer of all drugs, the US, has increased its appetite for methamphetamine even as Mexico has stepped in to cater to it, while the Colombian cocaine cartels face increasing drug enforcement action from both local and American agencies. Fentanyl can be manufactured anywhere and does not depend on any plant, unlike cocaine and heroin, so the US has turned self-sufficient in this regard, further leading to Colombia's cocaine and heroin export decline. It appears that, in the past two decades, Mexico has emerged as the key heroin supplier to the US, upstaging Colombia which most people associate with the heroin drug cartels. This is one of the primary reasons why Mexico has not legalized cannabis for recreational use through legislature even though the Mexican Supreme Court ruled around five years back that cannabis prohibition was unconstitutional. UNODC reports, in its World Drug Report 2020, that 'Most heroin (and morphine) trafficking in the Americas continues to take place within North America, i.e., from Mexico to the United States and, to a far lesser extent, from Colombia and from Guatemala (typically via Mexico) to the United States. Based on forensic profiling, United States authorities estimated in 2017 that over 90 per cent of the heroin samples analysed originated in Mexico and 4 per cent in South America, while around 1 per cent originated in South-West Asia. This stands in stark contrast to a decade earlier (2007), when only 25 per cent was sourced from Mexico and 70 per cent was imported from South America.'
To wean the Colombian people away from coca cultivation (those who are not cultivating it for the elites, that is) the government has been trying various strategies. Encouraging farmers to grow other cash crops is one of them. The obvious thing to do would be to completely legalize cannabis so that farmers can grow as much cannabis as they want. This is one of the surefire methods to counter the illegal and legal cultivation of opium and coca for heroin and cocaine. Cannabis, however, does not seem to figure in the large-scale strategies to reduce opium and coca cultivation by Colombian farmers, even as cannabis is being used in various places to reduce and mitigate the harms of cocaine and heroin addiction and damage to health. LA Times reported that 'Mathiasen said the increase in coca crops also has much to do with the lack of economic alternatives for 119,000 farm families estimated to be growing the illicit crop, and he urged international assistance to help Colombia bear the high cost of such alternatives. The U.N. has long held that crop substitution is the only effective method of combating coca farming.'
The state of cannabis, the herb that sustained millions for thousands of years, has also only gotten worse over time. The clampdown on it has only increased in Colombia, still with the involvement of the US DEA, which seems determined to keep it illegal in Colombia even as many states in the US have already legalized for adult recreational use. Most of the people who cultivate or consume cannabis in Colombia probably fear not just Colombian and US drug enforcement but also the heroin and cocaine drug cartels who view cannabis as serious competition. Cannabis probably still survives among the indigenous people and in remote places and among the people who understand its recreational, medical and social history. However, for the most part by now, heroin and cocaine have made deep inroads into the lives of the Colombian people as well, with many addicted to these lethal drugs and succumbing to them as is happening in the US or succumbing to the associated drug wars. Where there was once a natural sustainable medicinal plant, Colombia has chemical drugs that contaminate not just humans but the entire ecosystem rendering it increasingly unfit for life. Who stands to gain from all this is worth pondering over and if we do so we can then see who is behind this whole situation.
It is vital for all sections of Colombian society to recognize the plant's agricultural, medicinal, spiritual, industrial, economic, tourism, environmental and social potential and to legalize the plant completely with home growing being allowed. Countries like Canada, Germany, South Africa and Uruguay that have already legalized recreational use as well as states in the US that have legalized for adult recreational use cite human rights, improving public health, reducing crime, decreasing the black market, improving law enforcement, improving the economy and industry, protecting the youth, facilitating research, etc. as some of the primary reasons for taking the step. Scientific research on cannabis appears to be happening in Colombia, but maybe not to the extent that it is in Brazil. Reporting on research related to dental health in cannabis users, Scielo states, ''There was no significant evidence in the studied population relating periodontal disease with cannabis consumption. The response of periodontal tissues to non-surgical therapy was similar between cannabis users and non-users.'
To bring a turnaround to the mess in Colombia is a very straightforward step but a step that now means going against organizations that have grown, become powerful and thrive on the current state of affairs, powerful politicians in both Colombia and the US, law enforcement, drug enforcement, drug cartels, synthetic pharmaceutical companies, the fossil fuel industry, the medical industry, the fossil-fuel-based construction industry, the petrochemical-based non-biodegradable plastics industry, the synthetic fabric industry, religious orthodoxy, anti-cannabis prohibitionists, the petrochemical-based pesticide and fertilizer industry, alcohol, tobacco, opioids, timber-based paper, the media - basically the elites who control the power structure in Colombia and the world The straightforward step is the legalization for recreational use of cannabis once again like Uruguay was bold enough to do but Uruguay probably did not have the additional baggage of feeding America's cocaine and heroin habit and the undivided attention and aggression that came with it. Mexico, with its drug cartels and drug romance with the US, is possibly more similar to Colombia than Uruguay is. The straightforward step would mean restoring to native communities the way of life that they once had, to the farmers the crop that they once cherished, to the people the healthy, medicinal, recreational plant that they loved and to the land the plant that healed it. This will make the life in Colombia something to value and enjoy, making the people want to stay back instead of trying to break into the US with delusions of a brighter future. These steps will make Colombia a place that Americans queue up to visit and stay in, unlike the reverse that is happening today. Who will take this step in Colombia? Who can think beyond personal selfish greed and see the greater good of the people of Colombia and the world? Will Gustavo Petro do it?
In 2014, when Uruguay legalized cannabis for recreational use, The Hindu reported that 'With the US-led “war on drugs” being seen as a failed strategy by most countries in the region, the FARC has proposed 10-point plan to de-criminalise the drug usage and focus on the socioeconomic and cultural aspects of the drug trade. Only last week, Uruguay became the first country to legalise marijuana use, a move likely to be replicated in several other South American nations.' The tragedy is that in a decade since Uruguay's legalization, not a single South American nation has since followed suit. This shows the hold that the US and the ruling elites of these nations have over the people. In December 2020, the UN voted to remove cannabis from its most restricted Schedule IV category of the 1961 Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs. It does, however, still remain in Schedule I, which is the least restrictive. This one move by the UN itself should have been sufficient to bring about the recreational legalization of cannabis in every nation and an overhaul of national drug laws. But that has not happened. In the interim, the elites hit the world with their fake pandemic Covid that stalled all progress towards a sustainable future for the earth and vastly increased their own power and wealth.
It must be noted that in most places where cannabis legalization for recreational purposes has happened it took the efforts of the people who mobilized themselves through grassroots-level movements to bring about this change. Left to lawmakers, legalization would have been impossible, as the main interests of lawmakers concern the protection of the big industries opposed to cannabis and the protection of the elite upper classes and castes of the world. For something that truly benefits the people, the people themselves have had to make the change.
Related articles
Listed below are articles taken from various media related to the above subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of your truly at the time of reading the article.
'Colombia’s medical cannabis exports continued to grow last year, although sales still haven’t reached the level that the country’s operators envisioned.
In 2023, the value of medical cannabis exports from Colombia was $10.8 million, according to figures provided to MJBizDaily by ProColombia, a government agency in charge of promoting nontraditional Colombian trade.
The figure represents an 11.3% increase over 2022, when Colombia’s medical cannabis exports amounted to $9.7 million, a 96% jump from 2021.
The top destinations for Colombia’s exports have been changing as rules evolve in other countries.
Brazil was the top destination for Colombia’s medical cannabis products in 2023, overtaking Argentina, according to the ProColombia data shared with MJBizDaily.
Brazil accounted for 32%, or $3.4 million, of Colombia’s total cannabis exports last year.
Australia accounted for one-quarter of the exports, or $2.68 million, a 99% increase over 2022.
Germany was the third-largest importer of Colombian cannabis, with $1.53 million, or 14% of the total.'
Unveiling Colombia’s new national drug policy recently, President Gustavo Petro recalled smelling the odor of marijuana wafting through the streets of New York City during a recent visit to the U.S., remarking on the “enormous hypocrisy” of legal cannabis sales now taking place in the nation that launched the global drug war decades ago.
“Marijuana is sold today in Times Square,” Petro said, according to a translation of his speech. “It smelled on all the streets, all the way around the corner, and they sold it…like any other product. I suppose they charge taxes and that New York City or the state of New York lives partially from them.”
“That’s where the war on drugs began,” Petro continued, calling out the U.S.’s lead role in globalizing the drug war more than 50 years ago. “How many people have been imprisoned? How many people have died? Because undoubtedly illegality brought violence.”
'There was no significant evidence in the studied population relating periodontal disease with cannabis consumption. The response of periodontal tissues to non-surgical therapy was similar between cannabis users and non-users.'
'Unlike the EU, the process to register and certify a cultivar in Colombia is faster – about six months in some cases.
“If we can develop those genetics and produce on a large scale in Colombia for those companies that are in the business of breeding and selling seeds, it’s a tremendous opportunity, and it’s a tremendous benefit to cannabis globally,” Douglas said.
In fact, Ecuador legalized medical cannabis late last year and finds itself in the same position as Colombia with a 12-hour-daylight cycle. Ecuador will rely on its neighbor for seeds.'
'If the bill were enacted, farmworkers would sell their coca harvests to the national government, which would keep tabs on illicit market rates in hopes of preventing sales to traffickers for a higher profit. Then the government would control cocaine distribution through its health network. Adults would be limited to one gram of cocaine per week.
Additionally, because some Indigenous groups have used the coca crop for millennia, most often chewed raw for energy and to treat ailments, the proposed legislation would permit the production for ancestral purposes. The pharmaceutical and nonpsychoactive use of coca, such as in food products, would also be allowed.'
'Colombian President Ivan Duque signed a decree into law that will expand revenue opportunities for domestic cannabis businesses inside and outside the country, a move some industry sources say could resuscitate a sector that has not yet come close to meeting expectations.
Duque’s decree lifts the prohibition on the export of dried medical marijuana and potentially expands distribution locally'
'The United States is committed to working together with the countries of the Western Hemisphere as neighbors and partners to meet our shared challenges of drug trafficking and use. My Administration will seek to expand cooperation with key partners, such as Mexico and Colombia, to shape a collective and comprehensive response and expand efforts to address the production and trafficking of dangerous synthetic drugs that are responsible for many of our overdose deaths, particularly fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and methamphetamine. In Mexico, we must continue to work together to intensify efforts to dismantle transnational criminal organizations and their networks, increase prosecutions of criminal leaders and facilitators, and strengthen efforts to seize illicit assets. In Bolivia, I encourage the government to take additional steps to safeguard the country’s licit coca markets from criminal exploitation and reduce illicit coca cultivation that continues to exceed legal limits under Bolivia’s domestic laws for medicinal and traditional use. In addition, the United States will look to expand cooperation with China, India, and other chemical source countries in order to disrupt the global flow of synthetic drugs and their precursor chemicals. '
'Colombian President Ivan Duque made headlines in July when he signed a directive allowing the export of dried cannabis flower from his country, among numerous other changes, that opened up the Colombian cannabis industry. This change has positioned Colombia as a prime supplier to what may become a global market for cannabis if cannabis lobbyists in the European Union and the United States have anything to say about it.
Many cannabis companies are looking at globalization in the cannabis space as an inevitability and are preparing their supply chain and brand portfolio to capitalize on this emerging sector.'
'In addition to programs that expand the presence and the services of the state, the discussions focused on improving citizen security, interrupting drug trafficking supply chains, sustaining coca eradication, and interdicting chemical precursors and cocaine. To reduce money laundering and strengthen asset forfeiture, the two sides also agreed to focus on reducing illicit cash transactions, prioritize arrests, prosecutions, and extraditions of key traffickers and their enablers, and strengthen the judicial system.
Both governments underscored the importance of Colombia’s integrated security and rural development program, as well as the reduction of illicit crops, which combines not only supply reduction, but also the creation of licit opportunities and strengthening of roads and productive infrastructure to contribute to the rural development with an emphasis in the Territorial Development Plans areas (PDETs). Both sides also expressed support for the “Future Zones,” a development and security approach that contains a long-term vision for territorial transformation, a culture of lawfulness, licit economies and advancing rural Colombia’s transition to peace.'
'There is a great incentive for trafficking organizations to expand the fentanyl market: the large associated revenues. Compared with heroin, the production costs of single-dose fentanyls are substantially lower. For instance, it may cost between $1,400 and $3,500 to synthesize 1 kg of fentanyl, which could bring a return of between $1 million and $1.5 million from street sales. For comparison, 1 kg of heroin purchased from Colombia may cost $5,000 to $7,000,99 around $53,000 at the wholesale level in the United States and around $400,000 at the retail level in the United States. With fentanyls, the logistics for supply are also more flexible because fentanyls can be manufactured anywhere and are not subject to the climatic conditions or the vulnerable conditions required for the largescale cultivation of opium poppy.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf
Another example of pharma companies establishing a stranglehold over the cannabis plant in a country working with the government. Legalizing cannabis for recreational use and home growing in Colombia will benefit the people rather than the current model where only big industry monopolies and the super rich stand to gain..
'The announcement of imminent domestic sales is particularly positive for Khiron, which is headquartered in Toronto but primarily operates in Colombia.
The company has been focusing on establishing domestic medical infrastructure to serve Colombian patients, whereas competitors have largely positioned themselves to capitalize on low-cost production for export opportunities. So far, those opportunities have not materialized for high-THC products.
Khiron “anticipates fulfilling its first prescriptions of full-spectrum, high-CBD formulations within days,” the company said in a news release Friday, adding that it foresees a market developing with about 6 million potential patients for medical cannabis products in Colombia.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/first-medical-cannabis-sales-in-colombia-imminent-a-year-later-than-expected/
'Campo said the plan is to form a “joint venture with a company in the U.S. or anywhere in the world” that wants hemp or marijuana cultivars from Uruguay, where the hemp is grown. Currently the Sannabis hemp farm has nearly 27 acres to plant, with room to grow cannabis under contract for interested companies, Campo said.
Campo also said his company has applied to register some 150 cannabis strains in Colombia and awaits approval. However, Colombia doesn’t allow the export of raw cannabis flower, so the plants will have to be exported from Uruguay. About a dozen companies had licenses to grow hemp in Uruguay as of September 2019.'
'A 2019 report from WOLA, a human rights advocacy group in Latin America, outlines in detail the damage that glyphosate inflicts on the water table in the regions it is used as well as what WOLA describes as "triple deforestation." Here's how it works: Forests are cleared to adapt the land for the illicit crops. Then, aerial fumigation directly causes indiscriminate deforestation and damage to food crops before, finally, growers flee to new regions to plant again, launching new cycles of deforestation all over again.
Official figures from the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Environmental Studies in Colombia indicate that deforestation reached 124,035 hectares (over 300,000 acres) in 2015 as a direct result of this program. And a great deal of coca is grown in the Amazon region of the country, where delicate rainforest ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to the damage caused to the water table and to indiscriminate defoliation'
'Most heroin (and morphine) trafficking in the Americas continues to take place within North America, i.e., from Mexico to the United States and, to a far lesser extent, from Colombia and from Guatemala (typically via Mexico) to the United States. Based on forensic profiling, United States authorities estimated in 2017 that over 90 per cent of the heroin samples analysed originated in Mexico and 4 per cent in South America, while around 1 per cent originated in South-West Asia. This stands in stark contrast to a decade earlier (2007), when only 25 per cent was sourced from Mexico and 70 per cent was imported from South America.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf
'In 2018, the largest quantities of cannabis herb seized worldwide continued to be those reported by Paraguay, followed by the United States and India. Cannabis herb produced in Paraguay is reported to have been mainly destined for neighbouring Brazil (77 per cent) and Argentina (20 per cent). Over the period 2008–2018, the largest cannabis herb seizures worldwide took place in the United States, followed by Mexico, Paraguay, Colombia, Nigeria, Morocco, Brazil, India and Egypt' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf
Afghanistan and Mexico source the heroin and morphine. Mexico, Thailand, Myanmar and China source the methamphetamine. The Middle East and Eastern Europe sources the amphetamine. The US consumes heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. Europe consumes heroin, morphine, methamphetamine and amphetamine. Asia consumes heroin, morphine and methamphetamine. Australia consumes methamphetamine. The Middle East consumes heroin and amphetamine. West Asia consumes heroin and methamphetamine. All countries grow and consume cannabis. Opioids, methamphetamine and amphetamines kill the most in terms of drug deaths, cannabis kills none. Who are the leading opponents to cannabis legalization and leading enforcers of global anti-cannabis policy? The countries involved the most in heroin, morphine, amphetamines and methamphetamines. They put on a mask of concern about harms from drugs, produce, sell and consume the most dangerous synthetic drugs and vehemently oppose cannabis legalization worldwide while clandestinely feeding their habits and protecting their sources. They use arms and armies to protect and promote their synthetic drug habits, and drug money to fund and wage a war on cannabis everywhere, pushing man and planet ever closer to death on massive scales and away from the safe, healing cannabis herb...
Jul 10, 2020, 1:14 PM
'Mathiasen said the increase in coca crops also has much to do with the lack of economic alternatives for 119,000 farm families estimated to be growing the illicit crop, and he urged international assistance to help Colombia bear the high cost of such alternatives. The U.N. has long held that crop substitution is the only effective method of combating coca farming.'
'In Colombia, cultivation of coca, the main ingredient of cocaine, has nearly tripled over the past five years. As part of the 2016 peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country has embarked on a unique experiment to try to end coca farming and production, but freeing Colombia from its cocaine problem is proving difficult. Charlet Duboc travels to the remote towns where coca farming is a way of life to examine the struggle for a cocaine-free Colombia.'
'Colombian president Iván Duque recently signed a decree that allows the national police to confiscate any quantity of drugs found in public. However, according to experts, this measure will not achieve its public health goal of reducing consumption, and will also negatively impact the medicinal use of cannabis.'
Legalize marijuana for recreational purposes Colombia...it's been five years since Uruguay legalized it...
With the US-led “war on drugs” being seen as a failed strategy by most countries in the region, the FARC has proposed 10-point plan to de-criminalise the drug usage and focus on the socioeconomic and cultural aspects of the drug trade.
Only last week, Uruguay became the first country to legalise marijuana use, a move likely to be replicated in several other South American nations.'
'Riot police have broken up a pro-marijuana demonstration in Colombia’s capital city, as the South American country takes a harder stance on drugs.'
'The former President of Colombia’s Constitutional Court said Monday that a decree by President Ivan Duque to persecute marijuana users “goes against the constitution.”'
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