Según autoridades, Honduras cumple todas las fases del tráfico de drogas y ya no solo es un país de paso. Desde 2012, los carteles empezaron a cultivar hoja de coca, y del transporte pasó a la producción, comercialización y venta. Los recientes hallazgos establecen que algunos de los narcolaboratorios encontrados en el departamento de Colón tenían unos ocho años de funcionamiento. Con pruebas practicadas en diferentes zonas del país se confirma que el área fronteriza entre Olancho y Colón es donde más se da la siembra de hojas de coca. (Véase también: Cartel colombiano maneja industria de la pasta de coca en Honduras | Honduras da el salto: de país de tránsito a productor de cocaína)

Pedro Arenas is afraid that they'll take flight again. "I expect it could be within the next months," he says. Since the end of last year, nine AT-802 firefighting aircraft have been deployed throughout the country. But their mission is not to put out fires. The planes are trying to eliminate a problem that has been causing bloodshed in Colombia for decades: cocaine. The planes are loaded with the controversial herbicide glyphosate. According to Colombian media, nearly 800 barrels of the chemicals are in stock from a Chinese manufacturer. If spraying resumes, "people in the remote communities will completely lose faith in the institutions and the peace process," Arenas believes. (See also:  The ‘deja vú’ of aerial crop spraying in Colombia)

Cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines should be “nationalised” and sold legally in government-run pharmacies to undermine global drug-related crime, the UK drugs reform charity Transform has recommended. In the book 'How to regulate stimulants: A practical guide' – with a foreword written by the former prime minister of New Zealand Helen Clark – Transform has sought to set out practical ways to sell the drugs in state-run special pharmacies as an alternative to what it calls the “unwinnable war against drugs”. The book includes a mock-up of what a packet of legal, prescription cocaine would look like, including health warnings, which Transform said could be sold over the counter by specially trained chemists. (See also: A plan for legalising cocaine, MDMA and amphetamines)

Researcher Fatjona Mejdini states that the drug problem had its roots in 1991, when Albania went from an isolated communist dictatorship straight to capitalism. "They were tough times for everyone," Mejdini said. "And, as many people lost their state jobs, they turned to cannabis cultivation to sustain their families." Over the years, the government has turned a blind eye to the business — and "in some cases, we saw the collusion of state structures with people growing cannabis," Mejdini said. Criminal groups gained more influence. And, in the past 10 to 15 years, there has also been a new development: Networks have added cocaine to their business model. The networks and routes they had already built up in Europe were the perfect starting point.

El hallazgo de seis sembradíos de coca, realizado por el Ejército mexicano a principios de febrero en 4 hectáreas de El Porvenir y otros dos ejidos serranos de Atoyac de Álvarez, ha traído dudas y preguntas sobre qué papel estaría jugando México en las distintas fases de producción y comercialización de cocaína. Los militares incautaron un laboratorio supuestamente destinado a procesar las hojas de coca, donde había sustancias químicas, tambos, trastes y bidones. “Habría que ver si esto es algo experimental”, alertan investigadores que estudian el fenómeno de las drogas ilícitas en América Latina. La presencia de plantíos de coca en México no es un fenómeno sorprendente, dice Laurent Laniel, analista científico del Observatorio Europeo de Drogas y Toxicomanias (EMCDDA).

Lo que acaba de pasar en la Comisión Primera del Senado es histórico: por primera vez avanza un proyecto relacionado con la hoja de coca y sus usos. En específico, se trata del que busca regular toda la cadena de valor de la hoja de coca, desde su producción hasta su procesamiento y distribución en el mercado, una iniciativa de los senadores Iván Marulanda (Alianza Verde) y Feliciano Valencia (Mais), más 21 congresistas que les respaldan. Para el senador Marulanda, esta victoria representa “un cambio radical” en la política contra las drogas. Empieza, según dijo, “una nueva era” en esa política porque se está escribiendo un camino hacia la regulación del Estado en la hoja de coca. (Véase también: Regular el mercado de la coca: una respuesta alternativa a la guerra contra las drogas)

Over the last decade, Honduras has seen a proliferation of laboratories capable of transforming coca leaf into cocaine hydrochloride. This means that Honduras, once only a transit point for drugs, is becoming a cocaine producer. According to sources within the Honduran police consulted by InSight Crime, as well as reporting by La Prensa, 12 laboratories have been identified between 2009 and 2020. All the laboratories were used to transform the coca leaf while others also operated as nurseries for coca plants. The information gathered showed that at least one of these facilities was successful in producing hydrochloride to make cocaine.

While the scale of the discovery was shocking, the fact of it was not. The number of cocaine seizures in Europe has been rising steadily, quadrupling between 2009 and 2019. With these hauls representing a fraction of what is actually being trafficked, Europe has become the “epicenter of the global cocaine trade”. Most of these shipments go through Antwerp and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, which boast two of the continent’s largest ports. (Antwerp became the main cocaine hub after Rotterdam started tightening security, but an estimated 80 percent of Belgium-bound cocaine still ends up in the hands of Dutch traffickers.) For criminal groups, the ports’ world-class transportation infrastructure makes servicing the nearly 500-million-person European Union market as convenient for them as app-based delivery services are for their customers.

As Canada continues to work out the kinks of legalizing cannabis—and jurisdictions around the world follow suit—harm reduction advocates and drug policy researchers have their sights set on the regulation of all drugs, a reform they say is necessary to save lives and look at the issue from a public health perspective. Legalizing drugs would be different from decriminalizing drugs—the latter would make it legal to possess and use small amounts of banned substances but not to produce or sell them. Legalization would mean securing a safe supply of drugs and, with varying degrees of strictness, making those drugs accessible to the public.

On June 26, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released its annual report on the illicit drug trade. The headline is that despite millions of people killed, incarcerated and impoverished, and trillions of dollars spent on the global drug war, people are using more illicit drugs than ever. The UNODC accompanied its research with a booklet focusing on the effects of “environmental crime”—meaning, damage inflicted on ecosystems by organised drug trafficking groups—in the Amazon rainforest. Last year, the agency released its first specific report on “environmental crime,” and we are seeing increasingly high-profile figures speaking out about it. However, experts are warning that this latest UNODC report, along with much of the discourse around these issues, fundamentally misses the point in very dangerous ways.

More than a thousand immediate fines were levied in Belgium for possession of drugs during July alone, mainly at festivals, according to Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD). The fines are calculated based on the variety and quantity of drugs found, with offenders required to pay immediately via QR code or bank transfer within a 15-day window. Violators possessing cannabis face potential fines up to 150 euros. Possession of ecstasy or similar synthetic drugs comes with a heightened fine of 300 euros. Unprecedentedly, cocaine possession can now give an instant fine of up to 1,000 euros.

Con 43 votos a favor y 18 en contra, el parlamento de la ciudad aprobó una moción de la Izquierda Alternativa para ampliar los ensayos con cannabis a la futura venta legal de cocaína. A pesar de reconocer que la cocaína es una droga nociva, los políticos de Berna creen que la venta supervisada podría conducir a un mejor control del estupefaciente, informó SRF. El voto de Berna pretende enviar una señal al gobierno y a otras ciudades para que consideren la idea. Esta propuesta de venta de cocaína fue rechazada por un estrecho margen por el parlamento de Berna en 2019, pero una segunda versión que incluía más restricciones reunió suficiente apoyo adicional del Partido Socialdemócrata de izquierda para forzar la moción.

Expertos e informes en América y Europa coinciden en este punto: los carteles-monopolio al estilo Pablo Escobar, que organizaban toda la operación desde la plantación a la distribución, no eran estructuras preparadas para sobrevivir en el tiempo. Desde que los grandes carteles colombianos se empezaron a fragmentar en los años noventa, el negocio del tráfico se fue dislocando y tercerizando. A partir de entonces, campesinos, fabricantes, empresarios, transportistas, aduaneros, pilotos, marineros, buzos, policías, militares, peones y vendedores al menudeo forman los eslabones de una cadena que, al cerrarse, hacen que la cocaína de los Andes llegue a cualquier destino del mundo. Y lo hacen de forma compartimentada, autónoma.

La ministra de Seguridad, Sabina Frederic, publicó un informe sobre la política de persecución e incautación de marihuana, cocaína y drogas sintéticas por parte de las cuatro fuerzas federales durante la gestión de Patricia Bullrich en el que se revela que el 80 por ciento de los operativos fue contra consumidores o pequeños vendedores. Esa política se reflejó, en tres de los cuatro años de gestión, en un aumento de operativos y una baja de la cantidad de sustancias secuestradas. El informe señala con datos precisos que más operativos no representan mejores resultados. En 2019 solo en el 7% de los operativos incautaron más de 100 gramos de marihuana.

El estado colombiano lleva décadas tratando de eliminar los cultivos ilícitos, pero la extensión del cultivo de coca continúa cerca de sus máximos históricos. Las 169,000 hectáreas cultivadas en el 2018 ubican a la coca entre los 10 cultivos no-transitorios más grandes del país, según el censo nacional agrícola. Esto significa que los billones de impuestos gastados en erradicación y glifosato, la degradación ambiental en zonas de mega-biodiversidad, y la pérdida de incontables vidas, no han bastado para reprimir ni el cultivo de cocani el narcotráfico que lo alimenta. El camino hacia el cambio de estrategia es la investigación e innovación de los usos de la coca en asocio con las comunidades cultivadoras e indígenas: las que más han sufrido los flagelos del narcotráfico y la política de drogas.

Un juez mexicano ha otorgado a dos personas amparo para la posesión, transporte, empleo y uso de cocaína, excluido cualquier tipo de comercio, informó la ONG México Unido Contra la Delincuencia (MUCD), que promovió el proceso. El secretario general de MUCD, Juan Francisco Torres Landa, ha explica que este litigio busca cuestionar “abiertamente” la prohibición contra las drogas y la política pública existente en la materia en México. Para tal fin -y tras lograr una sentencia histórica que sentó jurisprudencia sobre el consumo recreativo de la marihuana- la organización decidió seguir una estrategia de litigio similar para la cocaína. (Véase también: ¿Sabías que una ONG ya puede usar y transportar cocaína?)

Este es el testimonio de Sandra Panchalo, lideresa cocalera y integrante de la Coordinadora Nacional de Cultivadores de Coca, Amapola y Marihuana (Coccam),del sur del país, que refleja la situación de miles de familias que viven del cultivo de hoja de coca en Colombia. ¿Quiénes son esas familias? ¿Cuánto ganan con la coca? ¿Por qué siembran coca y no otros productos? ¿Por qué quieren sustituirla? "Con esa plata muchos hemos educado a nuestros hijos. Yo, por ejemplo, tengo a mis tres hijos estudiando en Pasto. Los dos mayores están en noveno y el menor está en cuarto (de primaria). Y del corregimiento tenemos casos de familias que han sacado a sus hijos profesionales con la plata de la coca." (Véase también: Rostros que siembran: miles de familias dependen del cultivo de hoja de coca)

Dutch drugs criminality could be tackled by legalising ecstasy and cannabis and by a taking a much tougher approach to cocaine smuggling, an independent think tank has said in a report. The Dutch need to work on a ‘credible’ policy when it comes to drugs crime, think tank DenkWerk said in its evaluation, and that includes measures such as closing down port terminals which are not doing enough to intercept drugs transports. The think tank based its recommendations on interviews with 25 representatives from police, customs, the public prosecution office, ports and journalism. Legalisation, one of the report’s key recommendations, would deprive criminals of hundreds of millions of euros in profits. At the same time, it would tackle the illegal dumping of chemicals and discourage youngsters just out of school from getting involved in drugs crime.

Legalising cocaine is “an option that people need to dare to consider,” according to the mayor of Antwerp, Bart De Wever (N-VA). De Wever, whose port city is one of the European continent’s major entry points for illegal drugs including cocaine, says he has given up on the illusion that the war against drugs can be won. “The battle against alcohol and nicotine has also been abandoned,” he says. “Those products are legalised. We accept the social consequences.” De Wever has some experience of the problem. In 2017 he announced a plan for the city services to work more closely on a new repressive drugs policy as a test of whether the city could cope with a problem that has local, national and international aspects. (See also: Belgian police seize 11.5T of cocaine in ‘largest overseas drug bust ever’)

After an 11-year-old girl died recently due to a shooting incident in Merksem, politicians have stressed that tackling narco-terror is a top priority, without exception. Ministers and mayors have spoken about stronger controls and even deploying the army to tackle the growing crisis. Could the legalisation of cocaine be part of the solution to reduce drug violence in Belgium? Criminologist Tom Decorte from Ghent University thinks so. He has claimed that it is precisely the illegality of the drug business that creates the biggest economic incentive for criminals and by legalising and regulating it, violent competition could be reduced or even eradicated. (See also: Fines for using hard drugs could increase from €150 to €1,000 |Belgium in Brief: Carrots, sticks, and cocaine)