Colombian President proposes Latin Alliance to shift war on drugs towards public health approach

It's not an everyday event to hear the leader of a country describe the war on drugs as a failure and suggest moving away from the current drug policy.

But this is what Colombian President Gustavo Petro did in Cali on Saturday, September 9, during the Latin American and Caribbean Conference on Drugs in front of the representatives of other countries of the region.

Petro suggested forging an alliance among Latin American nations to present a united front in addressing drug trafficking. This strategy involves acknowledging drug consumption as a public health issue rather than relying on what he referred to as an ineffective militarized approach.

"What I propose is to have a different and unified voice that defends our societies, our future, and our history and to stop repeating a failed discourse that has already failed," he said, emphasizing the need to break away from the failed approach resulted in "immeasurable bloodshed and pain in Latin America."