Marijuana has been legal in the District of Columbia for nearly two months now, despite ongoing warnings from Congress that the city's voter-approved experiment violates federal law.

Voters in Washington overwhelmingly approved an initiative last November that allows adults to possess up to two ounces of marijuana. They can also cultivate up to six cannabis plants within their homes at one time. But Congress has direct oversight over the District's laws, so the controversial new law is facing heavy scrutiny from Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers in Colombia, one of the world’s biggest drug producers and the backdrop of an often violent illegal drug trade, could debate legalizing marijuana this year, according to Colombia Reports. While legislators are already moving forward with considering legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, Sen. Roy Barreras from the southwestern city of Cali, once known as the most violent place in the country thanks to its warring drug gangs, hopes to get full marijuana legalization on the table.

Lawmakers in Colombia, one of the world’s biggest drug producers and the backdrop of an often violent illegal drug trade, could debate legalizing marijuana this year, according to Colombia Reports. While legislators are already moving forward with considering legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, Sen. Roy Barreras from the southwestern city of Cali, once known as the most violent place in the country thanks to its warring drug gangs, hopes to get full marijuana legalization on the table.

Español“I think we need to go ahead and get rid of this damn drug-trafficking business that has done so much damage already,” Colombian Senator Roy Barreras said on Wednesday, June 10.

The senator added that we he would soon propose an amendment to the current medical marijuana bill being debated in Congress to expand decriminalization to include recreational purposes.

For 20 years The Economist has led calls for a rethink on drug prohibition. This film looks at new approaches to drugs policy, from Portugal to Colorado. “Drugs: War or Store?” kicks off our new “Global Compass” series, examining novel approaches to policy problems.
 

An international drug control summit in Colombia has again placed the contradictions in rapidly changing thinking on drug policy at center stage, as calls for drug users and producers not to be criminalized clashed with plans to increase efforts to tackle drug cultivation. 

THE DARK WEB may have a silver lining, according to a pair of academics: A new class of geekier, less violent drug dealers.

A law professor and a professor of criminal science argue, in a paper released online, that by reducing physical contact between drug dealers—particularly between dealers and their suppliers—the Silk Road’s bustling Web-based narcotics trade may have prevented bloodshed that would have occurred in the street-level illegal drug market.

The new visibility of police violence toward African-Americans in the United States has stoked public debate about policing: What about body cameras? Should we reform police training? Perhaps we should go slow on all that military gear?

I find it almost impossible to sit through any of this while the underlying issue goes unaddressed: It’s the drug economy, stupid.

During the 1980s and 1990s, as the United States battled the scourge of cocaine throughout the hemisphere, Washington did most of the talking. Latin American governments were forced to listen and fall in line. The American government had the most money to throw at the problem, the toughest justice system and the biggest bully pulpit.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Colombia just discarded a cornerstone of the American-backed fight against drugs, blocking the aerial spraying of coca, the plant used to make cocaine. Bolivia kicked out the United States Drug Enforcement Administration years ago and allows farmers to grow small amounts of the crop.