Colombia’s inspector general says Bogota’s mayor Gustavo Petro’s proposal to create state-run drug consumption centers is “unconstitutional.”
Alejandro Ordoñez said he would send a letter to Petro reminding him to respect the constitution and the law, while claiming the mayor “smoked green with this proposal” because it lacked legal and constitutional sense.
On Monday, Bogota’s mayor proposed to create “drug consumption centers” where the addict could “consume under relative control, without doing damage to society.”
“The national Constitution establishes that in Colombia the addict is not a criminal [but] a sick person, for this reason [we] have to design public policies for effective therapy and what the mayor [Petro] is proposing has nothing to do with these aims,” he added.
“The mayor claims reducing violence is one of the initiatives of the proposal but it is the opposite […] a great number of crimes are committed under the influence of drugs,” Ordoñez continued.
Petro’s proposal immediately drew criticism from Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, who on Tuesday said such a scheme “could cause a lot of damage to society, youth and the country.”
The Colombian constitution allows the carrying of small doses of drugs and determines drug addiction as a public health rather than a criminal issue.