Article Link: https://latinamericanpost.com/35525-colombia-how-do-you-try-to-regulate-cocaine
The obvious war between the world/ governments and narcotics it intense and long. There is currently “212,000 hectares of coca leaf and produces 951 tons of cocaine per year” in Colombia. In considering this fact, 90% of the worlds market of cocaine comes from Colombia. Recently though, a Colombian senator suggested that the state buy all of the coca leaf that is in production. The only fault is that it would cost about 1,178,000,000 U.S. dollars. The senator backs his argument by suggesting that with having the cocaine production and land in its pocket they can do a lot of things. He suggests it could offer tax benefits, it could create a new industry resulting in new laws and less illegal activity, the sale and production of the cocaine itself would be monitored by the government therefore resulting in less consumption, and could add on to the feralization and composting industries.
Drug abuse and the “war on drugs” is something widely discussed, and a big issue at hand that is hard to solve because of the illegal activity involved in it. It causes many deaths, gang and criminal activity, and a multitude of other negative things. With Colombia containing 90% of the worlds cocaine production is a big deal- because it is a lot. If the government decided to purchase that for better regulation it could help the spread of drugs throughout the world, in regards to cocaine, be smaller to reduced. With government regulation of the production and distribution, you can also control how much someone is receiving- meaning it would be less likely and less common for people to overdose or sell it again (as it would be sold in small amounts).
This could potentially effect the economic situation. If the Colombian government decided to purchase this, and produce the drug, it would be a booster for their economic system. It would create a boatload of jobs and also reduce the drug and cartel activity- making it a safer place. It could have room to be a model of other countries that have this issue with other drugs, and have a a wide variety of the base of it growing on their soil- changing the economy across the board and reducing gang activity and drug abuse.