Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has said that “cocaine is no worse than whiskey” and that it is only illegal because it comes from Latin America.
The leftist leader — who has struggled to contain rising cocaine production in the South American nation since taking power in August 2022 — made the comments this week during a six-hour ministerial meeting that was broadcast live for the first time ever.
“Cocaine is illegal because it is made in Latin America, not because it is worse than whiskey,” said Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla movement.
“If somebody wants peace, the business (of drug trafficking) has to be dismantled,” he added. “It could be easily dismantled if they legalised cocaine in the world. It would be sold like wine.”
Colombia is by far the world’s biggest cocaine producer, and cultivation of coca leaves — the drug’s base ingredient — reached a record high in the country in 2023, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said. About 253,000 hectares of farmland in Colombia were planted with coca in 2023, a 10% rise from the previous year, the UNODC found.
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During the meeting, Petro also pointed out that fentanyl “is killing Americans and it is not made in Colombia”, referring to a drug that is part of the opioid crisis in the US and believed to cause about 70,000 overdose deaths annually in the country.
“Fentanyl was created as a pharmacy drug by North American multinationals” and those who used it “became addicted,” he added.
Petro’s comments could ruffle feathers in Washington, as US President Donald Trump has made cracking down on drug trafficking a priority and threatened tariffs against Mexico and Canada over the illicit flow of fentanyl into the US, among other issues.
Just last month, Bogota and Washington were embroiled in a bitter feud over immigration that nearly triggered a trade war between the longtime allies. Trump had threatened tariffs and sanctions on Colombia after the South American country refused to accept military flights carrying deported migrants from the US. Bogota eventually backed down.
