The cultural, political and legal difference regarding marijuana is quite noticeable once you move to another country. I used to live in Venezuela, where they would chase you down for just a joint of less than a gram, which was completely embarrassing on the part of the police. "The officers are just doing their job" someone would say, but the reality is that consumers are merely persecuted in order to extort them for as little as 20$ (my own experience). After being in Colombia for a while, I see the results of the laws of tolerance towards consumers, here you can have a dictated amount of weed or cocaine in your possession (20 grams - 5 grams), of course this does not imply that when the police catch you consuming you can not destroy your joint (something that has not happened to me yet), you can also grow up to 20 marijuana plants, as long as it is only for personal consumption. 20 plants for personal consumption? I think the laws are very much in favor of consumers.
I already mentioned the legal differences, but another important factor to mention is the quality of the product. I have informed myself and discovered that most of the marijuana that is available in the center of Medellin is harvested from hydroponic crops, because it is necessary to take advantage of all possible space in houses to have a large amount of the final product. When moving large quantities per day by the number of people who consume, they do not have the possibility that the grass has additives to enhance its effects, in Venezuela it is known as "Cripy". Most of the weed sold in this area (where I live) is regular weed, as normal and natural as it could be from a hydroponic crop.
The buying and selling of weed is completely under the table, out of sight of the police, dealers are persecuted, while consumers are ignored. Close to where I live, there are recycling centers where the homeless take plastic products and scrap to get some money, most of the street dwellers are drug users, so the dealers took a corner very close to these recycling centers to position their illegal drug trade. So in less than 10 minutes they sell more than 20 joints and grams of cocaine, they are fast and cautious. There are always two lookouts in the area, in the middle of a T-street that warn of any sign of law enforcement officers, every 30 seconds you hear a "ALL GOOD!!!", they are the lookouts communicating that there is nothing to worry about. I am impressed with how proactive the dealers are.
Soon Colombia will pass a law to regularize the consumption, purchase, sale, export, import, treatment and production of Cannabis. There are two more debates to pass the law, 6 debates have already passed with more than 90% in favor of regularizing marijuana. This could be a great change, not only for consumers and sellers, but it will be a great blow to corruption and drug trafficking. I do not know much about this issue, but regularizing the trade would reduce the great demand for narcotics of the narcos, since basically soon you will be able to buy anywhere, they will have more competition and surely now will increase the variety of strains of Cannabis that will be on the market. It is a big step in a country like this that is constantly struggling with drug trafficking. I am excited to witness a change of such magnitude in the society in which I live.
I would like to know your opinions about legalizing marijuana in a country that has struggled a lot against drug trafficking and if you think it will be of any use.
