Colombia’s inspector general retracted his statement that Bogota’s mayor “must be smoking pot” for suggesting the city set up drug use centers to keep addicts off the street, local media reported Wednesday.
Alejandro Ordoñez, the inspector general, said he had not changed his opinions of Bogota mayor Gustavo Petro’s policy proposal, but that his comments concerning the mayor’s own drug consumption had been “a little extreme,” he said. “I don’t mind retracting it.”
On Monday, Petro had proposed the creation of drug use centers where addicts could consume drugs in relative control. Both Ordoñez and President Juan Manuel Santos came out against the idea immediately, saying it would cause social harm by creating more drug addicts.
Ordonez went so far as to send Petro a letter saying the mayor’s policy proposal did not fall under public health policy, as Petro claimed, but was a matter of criminal policy.