Colombia Condemns California Bid to Legalize Pot Amid Battle With Cartels

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos criticized efforts in California to legalize marijuana use while the Andean nation is investing millions of dollars and losing lives in the fight against drug trafficking.

Santos, who last month called on U.S. President Barack Obama to support a regional strategy for curbing drug violence, said governments worldwide need to act consistently.

“It’s confusing for our people to see that while we lose lives and invest resources in the fight against drug trafficking, in consuming countries initiatives are promoted, like the California referendum, that would legalize production, sale and consumption of marijuana,” Santos said at the opening of a meeting of government officials from Central America and Mexico in the coastal city of Cartagena.

Santos made his remarks ahead of a November referendum that would ask California voters if they want to allow the cultivation and sale of small amounts of marijuana. The initiative would allow people 21 years and older to possess as much as an ounce (28.3 grams) of the drug, and allow local governments to regulate and tax sales even though it is illegal under U.S. law.

“If we don’t act in a consistent manner on the issue, if all we are doing is sending our citizens to prison while in other latitudes they legalize the market, then we should ask ourselves: Isn’t it time to revise the global strategy against drugs?” Santos said.

Marijuana Market

The South American country isn’t known as a major supplier of marijuana to the U.S. It’s the source of almost 90 percent of the cocaine seized in the U.S. and 60 percent of heroin, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Supporters of the California initiative say legalizing the cultivation of marijuana for personal use would undermine drug cartels by reducing demand for their product.

The U.S. Justice Department “strongly opposes” California’s initiative, Attorney General Eric Holder said in an Oct. 13 letter to former administrators of the DEA. The measure would “complicate” U.S. drug enforcement efforts, he said.

Santos, a former defense minister, has pledged to step up policies aimed at ending violence by drug-funded groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, that are battling with the government.

Kidnapping and homicides related to the nation’s drug trade have fallen 92 percent and 45 percent respectively since 2002, partly as a result of as much as $7 billion in U.S. anti- narcotics and counterinsurgency aid.

Even as violence falls in Colombia, crime has increased in Mexico and Central American countries where trafficking has risen.

To contact the reporters on this story: Helen Murphy in Bogota at hmurphy1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net