Issue-Drug Policy
The use of jail went out of proportion
If the idea was to control the production, transportation and use of drugs through tough policies, what ended up happening was the criminalization of the most vulnerable and marginalized.
Read MoreEvery hour nine people are detained for drug-related crimes
The book “Drug crimes and prison overdose in Colombia”, produced by the Research Consortium on Drugs and the Law and Dejusticia, disagnoses the impact of drug policy on the prison system and recommends, among other measures, to decriminalize personal dose.
Read MoreDecree that created the National Comprehensive Program for Crop Substitution is constitutional
In an intervention before the Constitutional Court, Dejusticia argued that this norm conforms to the Constitution. However, the organization warned that the deadline to determine the beneficiaries should be reconsidered because it could leave out a group of peasants living in poverty.
Read MoreInnovative approaches to the drug problem and imprisonment
The experiences of Uruguay, Costa Rica and Ecuador show that it is possible and useful to apply innovative approaches to drug-related incarceration. However, they also highlight the limits of these programs and their failure to prevent further criminal activity.
Read MoreThe debts we owe to female coca growers
Although women growers face particular contexts of discrimination, poverty and workload, the decree creating the Program for the Substitution of illicit crops did not include a gender approach.
Read More10 reasons why drug policy needs to be shaken up
The growing risks of the war on drugs can no longer be ignored. On June 26, organizations from around the world will come together under the slogan “Support. Do not punish.” In Colombia a special event will be held in Medellín this Friday 23.
Read MoreAsk the cocalera women, they have answers
During the implementation of the Peace Agreement, women growers should have the opportunity to say in what ways to transform their territories, and how the promise of a peasant and solidarity economy and lasting peace could be realized.
Read MoreMore opportunities and less jail for women with drug offenses
93% of these women are mothers, 52% are head of household, and many have not finished high school; that is, they are poor women. Although the Peace Agreement contemplated a different criminal treatment for these cases, to date no bill has been filed before Congress.
Read MoreThe National Comprehensive Program for the Substitution of Illicit Crops (PNIS) needs more concreteness, a road map and a more global vision for integral rural development
We put forward some recommendations aimed at ensuring the proper implementation of point 4 of the Final Agreement: “Solution to the Problem of Illicit Drugs”, especially in relation to the National Comprehensive Program for the Substitution of Illicit Crops (PNIS).
Read MoreDejusticia weighs in on the Ministry of Justice´s proposal regarding differentiated penal treatment
We comment the proposed draft law on the Regulation of Differential Criminal Treatment for individuals associated with the cultivation of illicit crops and women linked to small-scale drug trafficking.
Read MoreThe road to peace is not only about eradicating coca
In Havana, the agreement did not only lay out the number of hectares to be eradicated, but also the means to make it possible and sustainable in order to achieve that “stable and lasting” peace that is called for in the final agreement.
Read MoreThe gap between discourse and practice for drug policy reform in Latin America
The drug policy reform movement, albeit with its internal diversity, has one main premise: prohibition of drugs has failed to achieve its goal of reducing both demand and supply for illicit substances.
Read MoreAn organization with collective leadership: our history reviewed in the Leader Network
The Leader Network chose Dejusticia to initiate the series of profiles on collective leadership. The profile published in Silla Vacía investigates three fundamental measures of leadership: vision, example and results.
Read MoreNew study shows growth in the number of prisoners in Latin America for low-level drug offenses
Today, the Drug and Law Study Group (CEDD), a network of experts on drug policy in 9 Latin American countries, publishes new research that reveals that despite the debate in Latin America on the need to rethink drug policies, mass incarceration for these types of crimes, even when they are non-violent and low level, continues to increase in the continent.
Read MoreThe State seems to negotiate with a dagger under the tablecloth
The drugs section of the peace agreement mentions strategies for the substitution of illicit crops, strengthening the fight against illegal finances and drug trafficking groups, paying attention to consumption and the promotion of an international debate on drug policy. However, it fell short in providing a comprehensive solution for communities associated with coca leaf cultivation.
Read MoreViolence Against Prisoners
More than a prison crisis, massive murders in prisons are proof of the institutional weakeness when facing organized crime.
Read MoreThe new agreement with the FARC and the changes it proposes for drug policy
Drug policy in Colombia is subject, at least politically, to the margin of action provided by the Havana Agreement on illicit drugs. A few days ago Colombians found our about the new agreement, and the scope of the changes incorporated after the proposals of the No campaign.
Read MoreIllicit Drug Sales in the Deep Web: Safer Trading for Whom?
The creativity evidenced by drug traders and consumers reminds us that prohibition got it all wrong by making “a drug-free world” its main objective.
Public letter on the reactivation of terrestrial spraying of illicit crops
Without previously implementing
an adequate development approach, concerted with the communities, forced
eradication has proven to be wrong and harmful.
“Yes, it’s about race”
Those were the words uttered by the mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings, during the vigil held after five police officers were shot to death by an armed man during a peaceful protest of the Black Lives Matter movement, which was organized after two African American men were killed by police. Well, let’s talk about race.
Read MoreAfter the Drug Wars
The post-‘war on drugs’ era has begun. Prohibitionist policies must now take a back seat to the new, comprehensive, people-centred set of universal goals and targets that we know as the Sustainable Development Goals.
Read MoreWomen, Drug Policy, and Imprisonment
This guide, written by the Washington Office on Latin America, the International Drug Policy Consortium, the Inter-American Commission of Women, and Dejusticia, proposes drug policy reform to reduce the female prison population in the Americas.
Read MoreMitigating Criminal Law Addiction: Alternatives to Prison for Drug-related Offenses
This report was prepared with the Colectivo de Estudios Drogas y Derecho and discusses alternatives to prison for drug-related offenses.
Read MoreTechnical Report for Alternatives to Imprisonment for Drug-Related Offenses
In Search of Rights: Drug Users and Governments Response in Latin America
The Drugs and Rights Studies Collective published a new report that examines government responses to the consumption of illicit drugs in eight countries in Latin America: Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia.
Read MoreOutrageous Penalties: Disproportionality in the penalization of drugs crimes in Colombia
This study supports with solid empirical evidence that drug policies in Colombia that resort to the use of criminal law do not respect the principle of proportionality and therefore are not justifiable from the constitutional point of view.
Addicted to punishment: The disproportionality of drug laws in Latin America
This document analyzes the proportionality of drug related crimes in seven Latin American countries through the study of the evolution of their criminal legislations from 1950 until 2012.
Read MoreAddicted to Punishment: The disproportionality of drug laws in Latin America
This document describes the disproportionality of the drug-related crimes in seven Latin American countries. Even though they are punishable behavior that does not directly or indirectly harm third parties, studies of drug crime related laws show a regional tendency to increase the use of criminal law
Read MoreSystems Overload: Drug Laws and Prisons in Latin America
This paper demonstrates how drug policy in the country tended to a progressive hardening along the twentieth century and, notwithstanding, failed to be effective in reducing supply and in combating organized crime networks dedicated to trafficking.
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