Breaking Ground: Historic Draft Aims to Unlock the Therapeutic Potential of Coca Leaf

On Friday, the Government published a draft of the decree that seeks to regulate the use of baby and coca for medical, scientific, research and industrial purposes by public entities.

The Ministry of Justice published the draft of the initiative so that citizens, organizations and other interested parties participate “with their comments and observations in the process of regulatory construction of the draft regulatory decree.”

In that sense, the proposal seeks to regulate this use of baby and coca under the focus of “human rights, social justice and promoting the transition to legal economies.”

For this reason, for example, the decree will allow the ministries of Justice, Agriculture and Science to “collect samples of plant material and existing products obtained from the poppy and coca plants, for their analysis and corresponding characterization .”

Likewise, entities wishing to apply the decree must request authorization from the National Narcotics Council (CNE).

“For the development of activities by public entities that include the use of seeds, the cultivation of plants or the use of existing plantations, the entities must present the appropriate projects that clearly state the scope or purpose and will be followed,” the document read.

From that, the CNE can authorize these organizations to possess seeds and crops or use existing plantations.

In October, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that coca crops grew by 10% in Colombia in 2023 and reached 253,000 hectares, which is 23,000 more than in 2022, while cocaine production increased by 53% .

In addition, it was noted that in the departments of Norte de Santander, Nariño, Cauca and Putumayo there are coca crops that exceed 30,000 hectares.

Information from EFE Agency.