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Coca supply control, territorial transformation policy and new indicators for drug policy success

Coca supply control, territorial transformation policy and new indicators for drug policy success Authors: María Alejandra Vélez, Lucan Marín Llanes, Luis Felipe Cruz There are three main types of intervention to control the supply of illicit crops, as part of the war on drugs: forced aerial eradication, forced manual eradication, and alternative development. This document briefly presents the academic evaluations of each of these interventions, the elements that the Center for Studies on Security and Drugs (CESED) and the Center for the Study of Law, Justice, and Society (Dejusticia) consider...

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Legal Coca: Colombia’s Drug Policy Insurrection

Legal Coca: Colombia’s Drug Policy Insurrection Author: David Restrepo After suffering through decades of the Andean region’s most repressive, expensive, and fruitless drug war, designed and funded by the USA, Colombia is finally revolting against its historical drug policy subservience and choosing to lead the global debate on the legal regulation of drugs. On July 20,2022, Colombian Independence Day, members of the newly elected, progressive Congressional majority announced they will legalize not just adult-use cannabis, psilocybin mushrooms, and opium poppy, but also tackle perhaps the...

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Review of literature on illegal drugs in the region

Review of literature on illegal drugs in the region Authors: Tatiana Martínez, Edgar Castro Méndez This document presents a summary of academic research papers on illegal drugs. All papers were published in 2018 and each one falls into one of three categories: production, trading, and consumption of illegal drugs. Descriptions and other related articles can be found in the appendix. First, we present papers related to drug production: studies on the presence of coca crops and alkaloid processing laboratories. Colombia is perhaps the best studied country in this area. This section also reviews...

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Culture, Citizen Security, and Football

Culture, Citizen Security, and Football Authors: Juan Pablo Castilla, Ana Arjona What conversation topics do you think would lead to a fight with your best friend? In Latin American society, the third most recurring motive of social violence is football (Latinobarómetro 2017). The 328 deaths from football related violence in Argentina since 1992 (Salvemosalfutbol 2018) is just the tip of the iceberg. Football related violence1 in Latin America is not limited to homicides and quarrels, it is imperative to consider their role in naturalizing violence in Latin American societies. With some exceptions,...

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Is forced erradication of coca crops effective?

Is forced erradication of coca crops effective? Authors: Tatiana Martínez, Edgar Castro In Colombia, several attempts have been made to control coca leaf production through aerial eradication, manual eradication, and voluntary crop substitution. Available results from areas throughout the country suggest that these measures have not been successful and have instead had negative effects on the population. Rigorous studies on the effectiveness of anti-drug policies indicate that measures that attack the strongest links in the value chain of the drug trade, such as seizures, have better results...

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Organized Crime and Drug Markets

Organized Crime and Drug Markets Authors: Juan Pablo Castilla, Ana Arjona This Thematic Document summarizes contributions from academic research published in Latin America during 2018 on public policy that addresses organized crime related to drug trafficking. These publications call for rethinking state interventions focused on the use of force that can result in human rights violations. Evidence shows that the most effective policies to reduce violence in the fight against organized crime are those that frame the use of legal force within social programs. It is therefore urgent that we better...

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