The different vision on the approach to the consumption of illicit substances in Colombia, raised by President Gustavo Petro, has generated an intense debate from which proposals arise that years ago would have seemed inconceivable, such as the legalization of cocaine.
One of these proposals, which is not yet officially discussed, was exposed by the head of the National Tax and Customs Directorate (DIAN), Luis Carlos Reyes, on his social networks, reviews RT.
«Cocaine must be legalized (and taxed)», said the economist who took office last July. Although a bill on the subject was presented in 2020 before the Senate, without further progress, this time it is a government official who puts the matter on the table.
The Colombian president already raised the proposal for the legalization of cannabis without licenses last August. His approach generated bitter criticism from the most conservative wing in the sphere of national politics, which sees it as an incentive to more drug use in a country plagued by decades of drug violence.
Although in 2020 Congress rejected the project to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, this year it returned to the legislature in the hands of the Liberal Party, an ally of the Historical Pact bench, which has the parliamentary majority, so it is expected that finally, it will be approved.Petro’s Strategy
The director of the Colombian tax collection entity, in another interaction on the social platform, considered it necessary to «penalize VIP evaders», with reference to drug lords who «cost the State between 40 and 80 billion pesos [between 8,700 and 17,400 millions of dollars]». According to him, these resources «should go to education, health, infrastructure and public assets».
«As things are, in Colombia we would not have caught Al Capone, neither as a traqueto [drug trafficker] nor as an evader», he added.
Reyes wrote his tweet in response to a tweet from the Colombian president, who shared excerpts from the article on his Twitter account called “Joe Biden is very shy. It is time to legalize cocaine”, published by The Economist.
Petro said that the aforementioned media outlet talks about his «strategy on drugs and policy changes in the US».
In the text commented by the Colombian president, reference is made to his recent proposals, such as the suspension of forced eradication, the procedural benefits for micro-traffickers, the commercialization of marijuana and the approach to cocaine consumption as a public health issue.A “healthy” tax on cocaine
To learn more about his proposal, Blu Radio interviewed Reyes. The director of the DIAN said that the tax on cocaine to which he refers to, would be classified as «healthy».
This denomination, according to the Pan American Health Organization, is applied to products such as alcohol, tobacco and ultra-processed products, as a health measure to discourage their consumption.
Regarding cocaine, he stated that although its use «is not ideal», the tax is a way of dissuading consumers without criminalizing them.
The official acknowledged that his approach will not happen in the world in the short term, but he considers that it is necessary to start thinking about the regulatory framework.
“One of the important aspects would be tax policy. It would be an important source of tax collection», expressed Reyes.
According to his estimates, this tax could leave a profit of approximately 2% of GDP and would yield an additional collection of around 5 billion pesos (1,000 million dollars).
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