The Need For Legalization Of Marijuana In Republic Of Peru

Globalization has drastically changed the economy, moved technology to different parts of the world and expanded free trade, unfortunately, this also applies to illegal markets, including the sale of drugs. This has become one of the most profitable industries of the world. According to the 2018 World Drug Report, 275 million people were drug consumers in 2016; and the United Nations stated in the “Economic and Social Consequences of Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking” report that more than $400 billion USD are spent annually in the drug industry. According to the 2018 World Drug Report, during the last year, the production of opium doubled from 2016 to 2017. Needless to say, the overdose of such substances has caused more deaths each year thanks to the legalization of said substances, giving the consumer an easier approach to these substances increasing the number over the time. An example to examine is the legalization of Cannabis.

According to Forbes “the marijuana industry may produce up to 250,000 jobs by the year 2020”.The Republic of Peru is very concerned about this issue because in 2016 coca leaf crops increased by 9% within its territory. This delegation created the Annual Plan for the Reduction of the Illegal Coca Growing Area in 2016 in order to help reduce the hectares of coca fields. This Plan uses the “Coca Crop Monitoring Report” which was stablished by the UNODC, which helps government in the implementation of annual illicit crops monitoring surveys which help policy development and planning how to remove them.

However, this nation believes that there should be another action plan that involves solving this situation worldwide. This is why this delegation proposes to regulate the legalization of the drug industry, this means that governments should encourage the decriminalization of possessing small quantities of a drug for personal purposes.

Another result of this act would be the regulation of plants like cannabis, with the purpose of making criminal organizations lose money and helping the government with tax revenue. With this, the government would not only monitor the product, but also its processes of cultivation and manufacturing, and this way people would not have to put their lives in harm’s way trying to obtain substances such as cocaine, heroin, etc. and instead would have to go through some stages or follow certain steps in order to get the substance.

This delegation believes that prohibiting drugs, their manufacture and cultivation, will only boost the black market and that the legalization of such can weaken the black market. This delegation is deeply concerned about this issue and hopes that we as an international community can find a viable solution for the conflict.