Colombian president calls for global rethink on drugs

Colombia's president has called for governments around the world, including the UK, to debate legalising certain drugs – even cocaine.

Juan Manuel Santos's call for an international rethink on drugs represents a significant raising of the ante in the debate on the merits of prohibition. He is the highest-profile incumbent politician to openly question whether there needs to be a comprehensive overhaul of global drugs laws.

In an interview in the Observer, Santos calls for a new approach to "take away the violent profit that comes with drug trafficking... If that means legalising, and the world thinks that's the solution, I will welcome it. I'm not against it."
 
He stressed that the initiative would work only if it was co-ordinated internationally and emphasised the vital role that the UK, the US and the European Union would have to play in shaping the debate. "What I won't do is become the vanguard of that movement because then I will be crucified," he says. "But I would gladly participate in those discussions because we are the country that's still suffering most and have suffered most historically with the high consumption of the UK, the US and Europe in general."
 
 
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