Medicinal Marijuana, Inc.: A Critique on the Market-led Legalization of Cannabis and the Criminalization of Rural Livelihoods in Colombia

Abstract

In Colombia, Law 1787 of 2016 legalized marijuana for medicinal and scientific purposes. The law promotes social inclusion in two ways: (1) establishing mechanisms to incentivize rural marijuana production; and (2) protecting and strengthening small producers in the context of governmental efforts to voluntarily substitute illicit crops. These commitments are consistent with the peace agreement reached in 2016 between the guerrilla group, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP) and the Colombian government, in which a solution to the problem of illicit crops based on voluntary substitution and rural development was proposed. What has happened, however, is that instead of the proposed “inclusion,” the legalization of marijuana has benefited the corporate sector almost exclusively. Employing a southern criminological approach, we first analyze the punitive rationale in the so-called “War on Drugs” and the shift to a purportedly more benign pro-poor and pro-health legalization discourse. From here, we critique the legal architecture to regulate the production of marijuana. In so doing, we illustrate how uneven power relations and governmental capitalist favoritism have been utilized by corporate ventures located in the political and economic bureaucratic heart of Colombia, reproducing the historical marginalization of impoverished mestizo campesinos (peasant farmers), whose livelihoods have been dependent on illicit crops.