VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBO #0749/01 0641156
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 051156Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7530
INFO RHEHOND/DIR ONDCP WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF STATE AIR WING PATRICK AFB FL

UNCLAS BOGOTA 000749 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INL/LP 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/AND 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: SNAR PREL PGOV CO
SUBJECT:  COLOMBIA DRUG SURVEY RESULTS OUT AND GOC USES THEM TO PUSH 
FOR CRIMINALIZATION OF CONSUMPTION 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  The Government of Colombia released the National 
Household Drug Consumption Survey's executive summary on February 24 
and used the results to re-launch efforts to penalize possession of 
a personal dosage of drugs, fueling the political battle between 
President Alvaro Uribe and Prosecutor General Mario Iguaran over 
this issue.  Of the nearly 30,000 Colombians who completed the 
Survey, 9.1 percent admitted to use of illegal drugs at least once 
in their lifetimes - with marijuana being the most popular drug. 
The results showed that Colombian drug use is on average with other 
South American countries.  Under the rubric of intending to adopt an 
integral antinarcotics strategy that addresses both demand and 
supply of drugs, President Uribe is using the survey's results as a 
tool to push for criminalization of consumption in spite of 
objections by the Prosecutor General.  END SUMMARY. 
¶2. (U) OAS's Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD in 
its Spanish Acronym) applied the SIDUC methodology to complete the 
largest national household drug use survey in Latin America and the 
first nationwide survey of drug consumption in Colombia since 1996. 
With the assistance from the technical committee composed of members 
from the National Directorate of Dangerous Drugs (DNE in its Spanish 
acronym), Ministry of Social Protection, the UNODC, and NAS Bogota, 
the National Consulting Center (CNC is its Spanish acronym) 
interviewed more than 46,000 people from 126 municipalities, ages 12 
to 65 (representing 20 million people out of a total Colombian 
population of 44 million).  29,164 people completed the 62-question 
Survey.  The results showed that 9.1 percent of Colombians between 
ages 12 to 65, or 1,800,000 people, have consumed illegal drugs at 
least once in their lifetimes. 
¶3.  (U) Marijuana remained the most popular drug of choice with 
eight percent of the Colombian population, or close to 1,600,000 
people, admitting to having consumed it at least once in their 
lifetimes; about 1.3 percent of the Colombian population represented 
(250,000 people) could be considered as abusers of marijuana. 
Almost half-a-million people (2.5 percent of the population 
represented) have tried cocaine at least once in their lives, with 
about 140,000 people having consumed it within the last 12 months; 
about 0.4 percent of population, or 85,000 persons, are abusers of 
the drug.  Cocaine users tend to be between 18 and 34 years-old and 
be males.  Less than one percent of the population surveyed reported 
using either heroin or ecstasy. 
¶4. (U)  Colombian illegal drug use rate is average for South America 
- similar to that in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, and considerably 
less than that in Brazil and Argentina.  Due to an absence of a 
nationwide drug consumption survey in Colombia since 1996, and the 
use of different methodology at that time, the current survey's 
results cannot show whether consumption in the country is 
technically increasing or decreasing, although all reports from the 
NGO and medical community indicate that consumption is increasing. 
 
 
¶5. (U) The main consumers of illegal drugs, representing six percent 
of those interviewed were 18-24 year-olds; followed by 15-34, and 
then by 12-17 year-olds.  The greatest consumers who used drugs 
recently came from the upper echelons of the society with 4.2 
percent consumption in stratum 4 (stratum 6 is the wealthiest, 
whereas stratum 1 is the poorest); followed by strata 5 and 6 
representatives with combined consumption of 2.9 percent; those in 
strata 3 represented 2.8 percent of consumption; and 2.4 percent of 
consumption occurred in each strata 1 and 2.  The greatest use of 
illegal drugs occurs in the department of Antioquia, the capital of 
which is Medellin. 
¶6. (U) The Survey results show that 48 percent of total persons 
interviewed and 44 percent of school-aged children (12-17 years-old) 
found it easy to obtain marijuana.  Cocaine is also easily 
accessible - 28 percent of the population surveyed found it to be 
easy to get cocaine, with 18-34 year olds and members of strata 4 
and 3 finding it the easiest. 
¶7. (SBU) Immediately after receiving the executive summary of the 
results, President Uribe seized the opportunity to re-launch efforts 
(for the fourth time) to criminalize the possession of personal dose 
of drugs, fueling the fight with Prosecutor General Mario Iguaran 
who opposes such criminalization.  At President Uribe's urging, on 
February 24, Minister of Interior and Justice Fabio Valencia, 
Vice-Minister for Justice Miguel Ceballos, Vice Minister for Social 
Protection Carlos Ignacio Cuervo, Director of the DNE Carlos 
Albornoz, and UNODC representative Aldo Lale-Demoz announced the 
survey's executive summary results.  Minister of Interior clearly 
supported the President's effort to criminalize possession of 
personal dose of drugs blaming the demonstrated drug consumption on 
free distribution of illegal substances. 
¶8. (SBU) Addressing the Prosecutor General's protests that addiction 
to drugs is a sickness and should be treated with policies of 
 
education and health, not penalization, Minister Valencia clarified 
that criminalizing consumption did not mean imposing penal 
sanctions, but rather it meant subjecting the users to voluntary or 
obligatory treatment for addiction.  The GOC is proposing 
establishing drug courts composed of judges and medical personnel to 
either send users for treatment or incarceration depending on the 
assessment of health and criminal issues.  The drug courts would 
first be established in areas where the highest rates of consumption 
were shown - Antioquia, Bogota, Valle, Cauca and Narino; then they 
would be replicated in the rest of the country.  President Uribe is 
pushing the criminalization of personal dose under the rubric that 
the GOC wants an integral policy against drugs - controlling not 
only the supply, but also demand. 
¶9. (SBU) The DNE, the Ministry of Social Protection, and INL/NAS 
Bogota financed the survey with the INL/NAS contributing 
approximately USD 330,000 for the USD 800,000 Study.  All parties 
participated on the technical committee, while UNODC managed the 
survey firm and OAS/CICAD analyzed the results.  The complete 
results of the survey will be analyzed and available within the next 
two months. 
¶10. (SBU) COMMENT.  Judging by the precipitous release of the 
results, the survey has become a political tool for President Uribe 
to leverage advantage in the fight with the Prosecutor General over 
personal dose, and push Uribe's agenda forward in what could be his 
last year of presidency.  The recent criticism by the Latin American 
Commission on Drugs and Democracy and others claiming that 
criminalization is a repressive approach to fight consumption, 
spurred the GOC to attempt to appease the critics by mollifying the 
consequences of criminalization of a personal dosage.  However, 
measures such as drug courts are unlikely to be instituted any time 
soon without a change in law and the GOC will face a serious battle 
on the way.  The Supreme Court threw out attempts to criminalize 
personal consumption more than a decade ago, and the judiciary would 
need to be convinced to support measures for which a budget does not 
exist, in a time of shrinking budgets.  END COMMENT. 
BROWNFIELD