Colombia Legalizes Medical Marijuana

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Tuesday signed a decree allowing for the cultivation, use, and sale of marijuana for medical purposes. He said that regulating medical marijuana was long overdue, given that Colombians had been using it for years.

"This decree allows licenses to be granted for the possession of seeds, cannabis plants and marijuana," he said from the presidential palace. "It places Colombia in the group of countries that are at the forefront in the use of natural resources to fight disease."

The measure "does not go against our international commitments on drug control," he was quick to add.

The move is the latest in a series of dramatic shifts in Colombian drug policy this year, made all the more dramatic by the country's long association with US-backed drug war policies. Earlier this year, Colombia ended the aerial spraying of herbicides on coca crops, and this fall, Santos announced a new national drug strategy that shifted emphasis toward alternative development.

For more than two decades, Colombians have been able to legally possess small amounts of drugs for personal use thanks to constitutional court rulings, but the government has been loath to act to regulate any drugs, in part because of fears of being shown to be "weak on drugs." But that seems to be ending with the Santos government.

Now, Colombia is joining Latin American nations from Mexico to Uruguay to Chile in moving either toward decriminalizing marijuana or allowing its medicinal use, or both.