Item 4 contains the agreement regarding the solution to the problem of illicit drugs, which promotes a distinct and differentiated treatment of the phenomena of consumption, the problem of illicit crops, and the organized crime associated with drug trafficking. This agreement additionally ensures a general focus on human rights and public health with differentiated gender and ethnicity perspectives.
Given that the cultivation, production and commercialization of illicit drugs has intersected, fueled and financed the internal conflict, resolving the drug problem in these regions contributes to non-repetition of the conflict.
The need to transform conditions of poverty, marginalization, and weak institutional presence in these regions must be acknowledged, while also recognizing that criminal organizations dedicated to drug trafficking continue to operate there. This acknowledgement should help place affected regions and peoples at the center of the solution.
The agreed upon solution to the problem of illicit drugs contains the following items:
- Substitution and Eradication of Illicit Crops.
The solution is based on a new Comprehensive National Program for Illicit Crop Substitution and Alternative Development. This program does not simply eradicate illicit crops or pay peasants for eradicating them, rather it works together with communities to resolve the problem of land ownership and crop cultivation under a rationale of cooperative land-use planning and social inclusion.
The program seeks to resolve the problem of cultivation through Voluntary substitution, because, on the one hand, it is essential that communities have an express will to pursue alternatives to the growing of crops destined for illicit use. And, on the other hand, the government has an obligation to generate and guarantee dignified living and working conditions for Well-being and quality of life.
The ideal for the program is that all substitution should be voluntary. In cases where the growers do not wish to participate or do not fulfill their commitments, eradication will be manually performed, and in any other case as well, local circumstances permitting. Spraying will be an extraordinary recourse under this strategy.
- Demining.
A tremendous obstacle for voluntary crop substitution, and for implementing the agreements generally, is the presence of mines in these regions. Thus, the Government is committed to launching a sweeping and demining program for regions of the nation that were affected by the placement of antipersonnel mines and unexploded ordnances. This program will rely not only on contributions from the government, but from the FARC-EP as well, through different means, including by supplying information.
- Public Health Programs and Programs to Prevent Drug Use.
This item proposes separating the treatment of drug use from the persecution of organized crime and developing a national policy regarding the consumption of illicit drugs that has a differential and gender perspective. It should be based on evidence and built and implemented with community participation.
To achieve the goals of a policy to promote health, prevention, comprehensive care and social inclusion, with special emphasis on children and adolescents, requires the commitment and joint labor of authorities, communities and families.
- Solution to the Phenomenon of Production and Commercialization of Narcotics.
Few problems have caused as much damage and pain for this country as drug trafficking has. The agreement for the end of the conflict severs the potential relationship between drug trafficking and political violence. Also, by removing crops, it removes part of the fuel for drug trafficking and, as such, for violence. Substantially reducing the financial resources of criminal organizations is also a measure for non-repetition.
It is essential to dismantle the deeply embedded mafias that threaten the construction of peace. The government will concentrate all of its possible resources against organized crime and, additionally, will revise and establish strict state controls over production, importation and commercialization of chemical supplies and precursors. All of this protects the substitution program, the implementation of the agreements, and the safety of these communities.
Finally, the identification and monitoring of money laundering operations must be improved. All institutions that exercise surveillance over different aspects of the economy must act against money laundering and firmly apply civil forfeiture to the goods they find.
- International Dimension.
A definitive, or at least more reasonable, solution to the drug problem is not possible without consensus between societies and a closer cooperation between nations. To that end, the government will promote an international conference, within the framework of the United Nations, to reflect on and objectively evaluate drug policy and to move forward with building consensus in regards to the changes that need to be made. This conference should address recent international discussions and developments in the subject, the perspectives of producer and consumer countries—especially the experiences and lessons learned in Colombia—, and the identification of best practices based on evidence.
