Former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria on Wednesday called the U.S.-led “war on drugs” a failure and proposed decriminalization on curb the damage of drugs to society.
In an interview with RCN Radio, Gaviria accused the United States of acting on misguided moral grounds, while refusing to see the reality of the situation and the ever increasing death toll in Central and South America.
“Society does not want to accept that people consume. You cannot turn away from reality,” said Gaviria.
“We cannot accept that theory. They may prefer not to talk about it. We cannot accept it … We can not be condemned to live in war because Americans do not want to talk about it. No one now speaks in favor of the war on drugs,” the former president said.
According to Gaviria, drug use does not increase with decriminalization and proposed that the state work with parents and teachers to decrease the damage done to society by drug use.
Gaviria also touched on the subject of the Summit of the Americas which will take place in Cartagena on April 14 and 15 during which the Obama Administration has agreed to discuss the issue of drug legalization for the first time in a multilateral setting.
“I would not say I have high expectations about what might come out of the Summit of the Americas, but the mere fact that the presidents of Colombia and Guatemala have raised the issue of legalization, legitimizes the debate,” said Gaviria.