Colombia's Runoff Elections Are Sunday: What Do The Candidates Think of Cannabis Legalization?

On Sunday, June 19, the Colombian runoff election will define who will be the next president of the Latin-American country. Candidates are Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández. 

The May 29 elections positioned the leftist Petro, from the Historical Pact Party, as the winner with 40.3% of the votes, although this percentage was not enough to win in the first round. His opponent Hernández, leader of the populist League of Anti-Corruption movement who is nicknamed "the Colombian Donald Trump," garnered 28.17% of the votes, reported El Planteo.

Where Do The Presidential Candidates Stand On Cannabis?

Gustavo Petro, an economist favors legalizing marijuana. "The issue of marijuana seems stupid to me to keep it underground," Petro said in a recent interview.

"Ex-presidents' relatives do the business of exporting legal marijuana and, on the other hand, they throw bombs at the peasants and their children who produce marijuana in Cauca," Petro said, referring to an area in southwestern Colombia. "The possibility of legal exportation of marijuana for recreational and medicinal purposes through licenses from the national government has friends with political power in Colombia. If Colombia does not get its act together, we're going to lose that business," he said.

Rodolfo Hernández, a civil engineer, expressed his feelings about marijuana legalization on Twitter by posting a series of short videos on the topic.

"Smoking marijuana is already free in many countries. But here, where the best is produced, we are still in the hands of repression," Hernandez said. "Even in the United States, it has already been proven that the most dangerous thing about drugs is prohibition."

In addition, Hernandez criticized the Colombian idiosyncrasy of waiting for other countries to legalize first as a way of getting a read on public opinion.

"The world is moving forward, but Colombia is lagging behind, losing job opportunities and progress. And if we continue like this, one day it will be the same with cocaine," concluded Hernandez.

Image By El Planteo