Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BOGOTA749
2009-03-05 11:56:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Bogota
Cable title:  

COLOMBIA DRUG SURVEY RESULTS OUT AND GOC USES THEM TO PUSH

Tags:  SNAR PREL PGOV CO 
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INFO RHEHOND/DIR ONDCP WASHDC
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UNCLAS BOGOTA 000749 

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR INL/LP
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/AND

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR PREL PGOV CO
SUBJECT: COLOMBIA DRUG SURVEY RESULTS OUT AND GOC USES THEM TO PUSH
FOR CRIMINALIZATION OF CONSUMPTION

UNCLAS BOGOTA 000749

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR INL/LP
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/AND

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR PREL PGOV CO
SUBJECT: COLOMBIA DRUG SURVEY RESULTS OUT AND GOC USES THEM TO PUSH
FOR CRIMINALIZATION OF CONSUMPTION


1. (SBU) SUMMARY. The Government of Colombia released the National
Household Drug Consumption Survey's executive summary on February 24
and used the results to re-launch efforts to penalize possession of
a personal dosage of drugs, fueling the political battle between
President Alvaro Uribe and Prosecutor General Mario Iguaran over
this issue. Of the nearly 30,000 Colombians who completed the
Survey, 9.1 percent admitted to use of illegal drugs at least once
in their lifetimes - with marijuana being the most popular drug.
The results showed that Colombian drug use is on average with other
South American countries. Under the rubric of intending to adopt an
integral antinarcotics strategy that addresses both demand and
supply of drugs, President Uribe is using the survey's results as a
tool to push for criminalization of consumption in spite of
objections by the Prosecutor General. END SUMMARY.

2. (U) OAS's Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD in
its Spanish Acronym) applied the SIDUC methodology to complete the
largest national household drug use survey in Latin America and the
first nationwide survey of drug consumption in Colombia since 1996.
With the assistance from the technical committee composed of members
from the National Directorate of Dangerous Drugs (DNE in its Spanish
acronym),Ministry of Social Protection, the UNODC, and NAS Bogota,
the National Consulting Center (CNC is its Spanish acronym)
interviewed more than 46,000 people from 126 municipalities, ages 12
to 65 (representing 20 million people out of a total Colombian
population of 44 million). 29,164 people completed the 62-question
Survey. The results showed that 9.1 percent of Colombians between
ages 12 to 65, or 1,800,000 people, have consumed illegal drugs at
least once in their lifetimes.

3. (U) Marijuana remained the most popular drug of choice with
eight percent of the Colombian population, or close to 1,600,000
people, admitting to having consumed it at least once in their
lifetimes; about 1.3 percent of the Colombian population represented
(250,000 people) could be considered as abusers of marijuana.
Almost half-a-million people (2.5 percent of the population
represented) have tried cocaine at least once in their lives, with

about 140,000 people having consumed it within the last 12 months;
about 0.4 percent of population, or 85,000 persons, are abusers of
the drug. Cocaine users tend to be between 18 and 34 years-old and
be males. Less than one percent of the population surveyed reported
using either heroin or ecstasy.

4. (U) Colombian illegal drug use rate is average for South America
- similar to that in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, and considerably
less than that in Brazil and Argentina. Due to an absence of a
nationwide drug consumption survey in Colombia since 1996, and the
use of different methodology at that time, the current survey's
results cannot show whether consumption in the country is
technically increasing or decreasing, although all reports from the
NGO and medical community indicate that consumption is increasing.



5. (U) The main consumers of illegal drugs, representing six percent
of those interviewed were 18-24 year-olds; followed by 15-34, and
then by 12-17 year-olds. The greatest consumers who used drugs
recently came from the upper echelons of the society with 4.2
percent consumption in stratum 4 (stratum 6 is the wealthiest,
whereas stratum 1 is the poorest); followed by strata 5 and 6
representatives with combined consumption of 2.9 percent; those in
strata 3 represented 2.8 percent of consumption; and 2.4 percent of
consumption occurred in each strata 1 and 2. The greatest use of
illegal drugs occurs in the department of Antioquia, the capital of
which is Medellin.

6. (U) The Survey results show that 48 percent of total persons
interviewed and 44 percent of school-aged children (12-17 years-old)
found it easy to obtain marijuana. Cocaine is also easily
accessible - 28 percent of the population surveyed found it to be
easy to get cocaine, with 18-34 year olds and members of strata 4
and 3 finding it the easiest.

7. (SBU) Immediately after receiving the executive summary of the
results, President Uribe seized the opportunity to re-launch efforts
(for the fourth time) to criminalize the possession of personal dose
of drugs, fueling the fight with Prosecutor General Mario Iguaran
who opposes such criminalization. At President Uribe's urging, on
February 24, Minister of Interior and Justice Fabio Valencia,
Vice-Minister for Justice Miguel Ceballos, Vice Minister for Social
Protection Carlos Ignacio Cuervo, Director of the DNE Carlos
Albornoz, and UNODC representative Aldo Lale-Demoz announced the
survey's executive summary results. Minister of Interior clearly
supported the President's effort to criminalize possession of
personal dose of drugs blaming the demonstrated drug consumption on
free distribution of illegal substances.

8. (SBU) Addressing the Prosecutor General's protests that addiction
to drugs is a sickness and should be treated with policies of

education and health, not penalization, Minister Valencia clarified
that criminalizing consumption did not mean imposing penal
sanctions, but rather it meant subjecting the users to voluntary or
obligatory treatment for addiction. The GOC is proposing
establishing drug courts composed of judges and medical personnel to
either send users for treatment or incarceration depending on the
assessment of health and criminal issues. The drug courts would
first be established in areas where the highest rates of consumption
were shown - Antioquia, Bogota, Valle, Cauca and Narino; then they
would be replicated in the rest of the country. President Uribe is
pushing the criminalization of personal dose under the rubric that
the GOC wants an integral policy against drugs - controlling not
only the supply, but also demand.

9. (SBU) The DNE, the Ministry of Social Protection, and INL/NAS
Bogota financed the survey with the INL/NAS contributing
approximately USD 330,000 for the USD 800,000 Study. All parties
participated on the technical committee, while UNODC managed the
survey firm and OAS/CICAD analyzed the results. The complete
results of the survey will be analyzed and available within the next
two months.

10. (SBU) COMMENT. Judging by the precipitous release of the
results, the survey has become a political tool for President Uribe
to leverage advantage in the fight with the Prosecutor General over
personal dose, and push Uribe's agenda forward in what could be his
last year of presidency. The recent criticism by the Latin American
Commission on Drugs and Democracy and others claiming that
criminalization is a repressive approach to fight consumption,
spurred the GOC to attempt to appease the critics by mollifying the
consequences of criminalization of a personal dosage. However,
measures such as drug courts are unlikely to be instituted any time
soon without a change in law and the GOC will face a serious battle
on the way. The Supreme Court threw out attempts to criminalize
personal consumption more than a decade ago, and the judiciary would
need to be convinced to support measures for which a budget does not
exist, in a time of shrinking budgets. END COMMENT.
BROWNFIELD