babyb - I have NOT said "all" Colombians use cocaine "because they are the largest producer". Do you have a problem reading English? What I said was A LOT of Colombians use Cocaine, a FACT that is obvious from:
(1) LEGALITY of personal use of cocaine in this country since their 1994 Constitutional Court ruling
and
(2) current government trying to outlaw cocaine again, because Colombia has become a "consumer nation"
... meaning, your earlier claim that "Colombians don't use cocaine" is completely wrong.
Here is part of the article I linked to earlier, for those of us having a hard time clicking on links & reading them before posting replies:
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Colombia sinks in sea of legal cocaine, heroin
By Kim Housego
Associated Press
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Outside a Bogota dance club called Pipeline, a bouncer frisks a young businessman, comes up with a small bag of cocaine, and casually returns it to the owner. He pockets it with a grin and swaggers into the maze of flashing lights and techno beats.
But this laid-back approach may not last much longer. A decade after Colombia legalized possession of 20 grams of marijuana and one gram of cocaine and heroine for private consumption, President Alvaro Uribe wants to restore total prohibition.
The reason: The world's largest cocaine producer has become a consumer nation with an addiction problem, according to experts, the government and drug users themselves.
The 1994 Constitutional Court ruling for legalization was aimed at forcing the government to find more effective methods than law enforcement for combating drug abuse, such as education programs, says Sen. Carlos Gaviria, the former justice who wrote the decision.
But he complains that successive governments never invested enough time and money in the battle.
Meanwhile, drug use has increased by 40 percent in the last 10 years, says Dr. Camilo Uribe, a toxicologist and the president's adviser on drug matters.
No comprehensive study of domestic consumption has been carried out since 1996, but a 2001 survey by the government's National Narcotics Office found that nine of every 100 Colombian city-dwellers aged 12 to 25 regularly use drugs.
Dr. Uribe (no relation to the president) blames legalization for part of the increase, saying it made drugs more acceptable in a society that traditionally frowned upon them as a source of corruption and violence.
"The court decision sent the completely wrong message -- that it's OK to do drugs," he says.
Uribe's presidency has been characterized by sternness on all fronts -- the fight against Colombian rebels, corruption in politics, and drug use. But his attempt to criminalize drug use by referendum last year was killed by the Constitutional Court before the vote could take place. The court said prohibiting drug use would violate the constitutional right to free choice.
Among the smartly dressed crowd at the Pipeline club, the cocaine sniffers say recriminalization would probably push up prices from their current rock-bottom level of $3 to $4 a gram, compared with $75 to $100 in the United States.
"Right now it's cheaper than buying a beer," a 33-year-old bank executive, who gives his name only as Guillermo, says after snorting a line of cocaine in the restroom.