Colombia: el auge de los encarcelamientos por delitos de drogas plantea dudas sobre la ley de descriminalización
El auge de los encarcelamientos relacionados con delitos de drogas en Colombia en los últimos 14 años pone de relieve los fallos en el enfoque y la aplicación de las medidas de descriminalización en el país. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.
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A recent report reveals that the number of people imprisoned for drug offenses in Colombia skyrocketed over 250 percent in the last 14 years, despite the country’s decriminalization law and professed commitment to drug policy reform.
The report, released November 3 by the Research Consortium on Drugs and the Law (Colectivo de Estudios Drogas y Derecho - CEDD), found that between 2000 and 2014 the number of people imprisoned for drug offenses in Colombia grew from 6,263 to 23,141, an alarming rise of 269 percent. This outstrips the total rise in prison population during the same period (136 percent).
As of 2014, 20 percent of people incarcerated in Colombia were there for drug crimes, a jump from the 12 percent they constituted in 2000.
What makes the climb in Colombia’s prison population particularly surprising is the fact that bar two years in the 14-year period outlined above, Colombia has had in place a law decriminalizing the possession of drugs for personal use.
The country first decriminalized possession for personal use in 1994 when the Constitutional Court ruled that that penalties for carrying a personal dose were unconstitutional. However, after being elected president in 2002, Alvaro Uribe pushed hard to have the ruling overturned, succeeding in 2009 with the passing of a constitutional amendment.
Uribe’s amendment was only to last two years, though, with the Supreme Court reaffirming the 1994 ruling in 2011, and paving the way for the government of Juan Manuel Santos to propose legislation decriminalizing possession of 20 grams of marijuana and a gram of cocaine. The Constitutional Court approved this in July 2012.
In addition, President Santos has expressed a desire to explore measures beyond decriminalization, telling the Observer in 2011 that “[a] new approach should try and take away the violent profit that comes with drug trafficking … If that means legalizing, and the world thinks that's the solution, I will welcome it.”
The fact that Colombia’s decriminalization law and apparent progressiveness from the current government has not translated into on-the-ground implementation raises questions of how the cultural shift away from criminal justice solutions to the issue can begin.
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