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Colombian lawmakers have approved a bill to legalize marijuana\u2014advancing the legislation through the first of eight needed debates as legislators restart the two-year process of enacting the reform<\/a> over again after a prior version stalled at the last stage in the Senate last session.<\/p>\n The new measure cleared the First Committee of the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday. Rep. Juan Carlos Losada, who is again championing the legislation, said that the vote is a \u201creflection of a Congress that is aware of the progress that drug policy needs from prohibition to regulation,\u201d according to a translation.<\/p>\n Aprobado por unanimidad en 1er debate nuestro PAL de #CannabisDeUsoAdulto<\/a>. <\/p>\n Nos quedan 7 debates y estamos seguros que la votaci\u00f3n de hoy, es el reflejo de un Congreso consciente del avance que necesita la pol\u00edtica de drogas de la prohibici\u00f3n a la regulaci\u00f3n.#RegularCannabisYA<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/dKm3DrDlPf<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Juan Carlos Losada (@JuanKarloslos) August 29, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Losada and Sen. Mar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 Pizarro announced the reintroduction of the bill late last month, emphasizing that while the proposal came up short last session, the stage is set for Colombia to pass legalization this round.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started the race to achieve the regularization of cannabis for adult use positively,\u201d Pizarro said in a tweet on Tuesday, noting that there are still seven votes to go.<\/p>\n Empezamos positivamente la carrera por lograr la regularizaci\u00f3n del cannabis de uso adulto. Fue aprobado en primer debate el proyecto en @CamaraColombia<\/a> @JuanKarloslos<\/a>. Restan 7 debates! pic.twitter.com\/Wuf61HBxlv<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Mar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 Pizarro Rodr\u00edguez (@PizarroMariaJo) August 29, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The legislation was previously approved in both chambers last year as part of the two-year process that constitutional amendments must undergo. It then passed the Chamber of Deputies again in May<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0advanced through a Senate committee<\/a> last month. But while it received a majority of the votes on the floor, it fell short of the 54-vote threshold it needed for passage.<\/p>\n With Tuesday\u2019s vote, the current bill<\/a> is now making its way down \u201ca path full of challenges to start writing a new story in the fight against drugs,\u201d Losada said.<\/p>\n Hoy en @ComisionPrimera<\/a> iniciamos de nuevo un camino lleno de retos para empezar a escribir una nueva historia en la lucha contra las drogas. Necesitamos avanzar en un cambio en la pol\u00edtica de drogas y nuestro proyecto de #CannabisDeUsoAduto<\/a> es el primer paso.#RegularCannabisYA<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/qMYquqMsBW<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Juan Carlos Losada (@JuanKarloslos) August 29, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n At\u00a0a public hearing in the Senate panel last year<\/a>, Justice Minister N\u00e9stor Osuna similarly said that Colombia has been the victim of \u201ca failed war that was designed 50 years ago and, due to absurd prohibitionism, has brought us a lot of blood, armed conflict, mafias and crime.\u201d<\/p>\n The Chamber of Representatives\u00a0gave initial approval to the legalization bill<\/a>\u00a0last year. The head of the Interior Ministry also spoke in favor of the reform proposal at the time. That vote came shortly after a congressional committee\u00a0advanced this measure and a separate legalization bill<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 President Gustavo Petro, a progressive who has been strongly advocating for an international end to drug criminalization since being inaugurated last year, has discussed the possible benefits of cannabis legalization.<\/p>\n Last year, the president\u00a0delivered a speech at a meeting of the United Nations (UN)<\/a>, urging member nations to fundamentally change their approaches to drug policy and disband with prohibition.<\/p>\n Petro has also talked about\u00a0the prospects of legalizing marijuana in Colombia<\/a>\u00a0as one means of reducing the influence of the illicit market.\u00a0And he signaled that the policy change should be followed by releasing people who are currently in prison over cannabis.<\/p>\n He spoke about the economic potential of a legal cannabis industry, one where small towns in places like the Andes, Corinto and Miranda could stand to benefit from legal marijuana cultivation, possibly without any licensing requirements.<\/p>\n The president also signaled that he\u2019d be interested in exploring the idea of \u200b\u200bexporting cannabis to other countries where the plant is legal.<\/p>\n Petro met with the president of Mexico last year, and the pair announced that they will be bringing together other Latin American leaders for an international conference focused on on\u00a0\u201credesigning and rethinking drug policy\u201d<\/a>\u00a0given the \u201cfailure\u201d of prohibition. Mexican lawmakers are also pursuing national legalization.<\/p>\n According to the United Nations Office of Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Colombia remains a chief exporter of cocaine,\u00a0\u00a0despite\u00a0\u00a0\u201cdrug supply reduction activities in Colombia, such as eradication of coca bush and destruction of laboratories.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2020, Colombian legislators introduced a bill that would have regulated coca, the plant that is processed to produce cocaine, in an acknowledgment that the government\u2019s decades-long fight against the drug and its procedures have consistently failed.\u00a0That legislation cleared a committee, but it was ultimately shelved by the overall conservative legislature.<\/p>\n Advocates had been optimistic that such a proposal could advance under the Petro administration. The president hasn\u2019t taken a clear stance on the legislation itself, but he campaigned on legalizing marijuana and promoted the idea of \u200b\u200bcannabis as an alternative to cocaine.<\/p>\n Former Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos has also been critical of the drug war and embraced reform. In an op-ed published before he left office, he criticized the United Nations and U.S. President Richard Nixon for their role in setting a drug war standard that has proven ineffective at best and counterproductive at worst.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is time we talk about responsible government regulation, look for ways to cut off the drug mafias\u2019 air supply, and tackle the problems of drug use with greater resources for prevention, care and harm reduction with regard to public health and the social fabric,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis reflection must be global in scope in order to be effective,\u201d Santos, who is a member of the pro-reform Global Commission on Drug Policy, said.\u00a0\u201cIt must also be broad, including participation not only of governments but also of academia and civil society.\u00a0It must reach beyond law enforcement and judicial authorities and involve experts in public health, economists and educators, among other disciplines.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a U.S. congressional delegation\u00a0returned from a visit to Colombia<\/a>\u00a0last year, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), who was part of the trip, told Marijuana Moment that one theme of his discussions with officials in the country was that the world has \u201clost the war on drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n A Majority Of Ohio Voters\u2014Including Most Republicans\u2014Support Marijuana Legalization Initiative On November Ballot, New Survey Finds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Image element courtesy of Bryan Pocius<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Colombian Lawmakers Approve New Marijuana Legalization Bill In First Of Eight Debates After Reform Stalled Last Session<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Colombian lawmakers have approved a bill to legalize marijuana\u2014advancing the legislation through the first of eight needed debates as legislators restart the two-year process of enacting the reform over again after a prior version stalled at the last stage in the Senate last session. The new measure cleared the FirstContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":68133,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68134,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68132\/revisions\/68134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Colombian Lawmakers Approve New Marijuana Legalization Bill In First Of Eight Debates After Reform Stalled Last Session<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"