A recent paper by Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli, published to coincide with the March 2022 session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna, purports to describe how regulating.
1. INTRODUCTION
The usage of cannabis, hemp or marijuana precedes official
records, and it is one of the oldest crops thought to have been
cultivated.
1 A complex plant with over 400 chemical
entities, it remains poorly understood to this day due to the
restrictions, legal and otherwise, imposed on it, making a
rational, scientific appraisal and acceptance of it by the general
public, difficult.
2
Hemp and hemp products have been a central theme in the
international drug control regime and have been controversial, to
say the least. A hemp plant, however, can be much more than just a
gateway drug, as is commonly misunderstood, and can have various
What’s new? Coca crops have set record yields in Colombia since the 2016 peace accord with FARC guerrillas, persuading the government to expand its forced eradication campaign with the backing of U.S. authorities. Bogotá claims that eliminating the plant will reduce rural violence.
Why does it matter? Insecurity in Colombia’s countryside has steadily got worse in recent years as armed groups vie with one another and the military for supremacy. Enhanced eradication, and potentially aerial fumigation, could intensify violence by forcing farmers into the clutches of armed outfits, while failing to stop the replanting of coca.
What should be done? Colombia and the U.S., the lead outside backer of tough counter-narcotic policies in Latin America, should turn the page on using force against coca farmers in a bid to dent global cocaine supply. Boosting rural economies, forging ahead with crop substitution and avoiding clashes with cultivators would make for better policy.