A Drug Warrior Reconsiders

Ernesto samper: New thinking on the
War on Drugs.

As President of Colombia from 1994 to 1998, Ernesto Samper carried out the good fight against the drug trade, thru interdiction, imprisonment and erradication.

Now, he believes that war was a failure, and has written a book calling for change.

His book, 'Drugs: Prohibition or Legalization, a New Proposal,' doesn't appear to break much new ground. Samper argues that prohibition enriches criminal cartels and that limiting the supply of one drug just pushes users to other drugs. Decriminalization and regulation, he says, would reduce the damage. The United States' obsession with prohibition, Samper says, is similar to a religion.

Samper wants to starts by legalizing marijuana, and then evaluate other drugs on a case-by-case basis.

The real significance of this book is the author's perspective. Samper governed Colombia during some of the worst years of drug cartel violence. He also came to know first-hand the prohibition's corrosive effects on society when it was revealed that the Cali drug cartel had contributed some $6 million to his campaign. Altho there was little question about the illegal money, Samper himself was not finally convicted. Still, the scandal soiled his and Colombia's international image.

Samper joins a growing list of Colombian politicians who recommend a rethinking of prohibitionist policies, including fellow ex-presidents Cesar Gaviria and Andres Pastrana, and even current Pres. Juan Manuel Santos. The list is only likely to continue growing longer.

But, in this war, the politician in the White House is the one whose views really matter.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Samper on Drugs

Ernesto Samper

Colombian ex-President Ernesto Samper knows a little bit about illegal drugs. He governed Colombia from 1994-98, during some of the most vicious years of cocaine-financed violence. And Samper allegedly received money from the Cali drug cartel for his '94 presidential campaign.

Now, in this El Tiempo column, Samper has come out in favor of decriminalizing and regulating illegal drugs. Samper makes many of the common arguments: the War on Drugs has failed and doing more harm than good. But he makes this particularly trenchant statement:

"The existing anti-drug policy has achieved that world opinion no longer considers drugs to be good or bad because they are damaging, but because they are prohibited."

In other words, it's a closed circle: People believe drugs are bad not based on any harm they cause but simply for the very fact that they are banned.

Cesar Gaviria

This makes Samper at least the second Colombian ex-president to speak out in favor of drug decriminaliztion. His predecessor, Cesar Gaviria, who governed from 1990 to '94, has also called prohibitionism a failure and for a new drug policy.

But it's Samper's own experience - which shook the nation the way Watergate shook the United States - which provides the strongest condemnation of prohibitionism. Samper evidently had lots of good intentions, some of which he accomplished, to expand health care, help victims of Colombia's conflict and even combat narcotrafficking.


Samper, like most politicians, undoubtedly received campaign support from many sources, most of them legal and some of them arguably as destructive as narcotrafficking, such as the petroleum and tobacco industries.

But, because the illegal drug industry is precisely illegal, when a politician is exposed receiving drug money, scandal ensues. Similarly, across the globe, illegal drug money corrupts public officials ranging from local cops up to senators and presidents. Some small, poor nations in Central America, the Carribean and Africa have been converted into so-called narco-states mostly because they have the bad luck of being located along cocaine trafficking routes to United States and European buyers.

After leaving office, Samper left Colombia, returning only in the year 2000. Since then, he's coordinated the Foro de Biarritz, a Latin American-European economic coordinating group, and headed the Corporacion Escenarios, a policy think-tank. An in-depth analysis of drug policy is available on the Foro's website.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours