Colombia has rejected an attempt to legalize the recreational cannabis market for adult use, a blow to hopes that the government might pursue a regulatory model rather than prohibition.
On Wednesday night, the plenary session of the Senate failed to pass the proposed constitutional reform, falling short, with 47 votes in favor and 43 against, of garnering the 54 votes necessary to pass the law.
“We arrived at this debate exhausted, but with the peace of mind of having done everything possible so that this country could imagine different paths to face a problem that deeply afflicts it,” said María José Pizarro, the senator from the Historical Pact who was responsible for the project.
The legalization of recreational cannabis was seen as a source of much-needed tax revenue for many rural areas. The project proposed by the liberal representative Juan Carlos Losada had set out to allocate the money generated by taxes to health, education and agriculture in those regions.
Some senators from the opposition parties of the Democratic Center, Conservative Party, U Party, and Green Party worked to oppose the bill, leaning heavily on moral and religious arguments and deeming it a threat to children. Jota Pe Hernández, a representative from the Green Party, celebrated the bill’s rejection on Twitter, declaring “the Senate says NO to legalizing the sale and distribution of marijuana!!”
The failure of the cannabis bill comes in the face of other much-needed social reforms proposed by the government, including labor and pension reforms, that are still without solid majorities and a stable legislative coalition for the President Gustavo Petro. With this setback, the fight against illicit drugs in Colombia will continue along the same failed lines.