Daring to Regulate Cocaine: Lessons from Colombia’s Drug War Trenches

Our “Cocaine Papers” Report – part of Amanda Feilding and the Beckley Foundation’s Roadmaps to Regulation series – aims to take stock of the current state of play, and learn from Colombia’s pioneering 2020 coca & cocaine regulation bill in order to suggest alternative scenarios for a regulated market for the production, distribution and consumption of coca and cocaine.

In advance of the publication of the full “Cocaine Papers” Report later this year, we are pleased to present this timely and important essay from the Report, written by David Restrepo of Centro de Estudios sobre Seguridad y Drogas – CESED, which provides an in-depth review of Colombia’s 2020 regulation bill.

The paper provides a qualitative analysis of coca & cocaine regulation, its effects on the supply system and the associated benefit and cost outcomes for Colombia.