Gustavo Petro, the President of Colombia, has once again chosen to provoke public debate by speaking openly about the legalization of cocaine—an issue he has repeatedly addressed in the past. This time, the Latin American leader, in the middle of an emergency cabinet meeting that he himself convened—without being asked to do so and without the agenda having anything to do with drugs or their regulation—began discussing the process of legalizing the world’s most widely used narcotic. Specifically, Petro stated that cocaine remains illegal only because “it is produced in Latin America,” and he went on to compare the drug to alcohol, stressing that “cocaine is no more harmful than whiskey.”

Petro, Colombia’s first center-left president, had declared in his inaugural speech that the “war on drugs has been lost” and had announced a series of measures to expand coca plant cultivation. According to the president, coca cultivation involves more than 110,000 farming families who are unfairly stigmatized, as the plant’s leaves—which serve as the raw material for cocaine—are also used to produce fertilizers. In fact, his 2022 plan to combat drug trafficking, which has a target date of 2033, envisions increased cultivation under legal and transparent processes.

However, the socialist president’s policy, according to official data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has led to a 10% increase in cocaine production within just one year. In 2023 alone, coca cultivation in Colombia covered 25,300 square kilometers—230 more than in 2022. During the same period, cocaine production in the country surged by 53%, exceeding 2,600 tons.

Watch the Colombian President’s Statements Here

Colombia's president calls for cocaine legalization – “It's as good as whiskey!”

Gustavo Petro sincerely believes that prohibition is only being upheld because cocaine is made in Latin America. At the same time, the Colombian leader is sure that since the powder is produced and… pic.twitter.com/oZeIzLcou0

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) February 5, 2025