Colombia Presidential Elections – El Planteo Article Highlights What Presidential Candidates Think About Cannabis | Cannabis Law Report | Where to buy Skittles Moonrock online

Learn where to buy weed online. TOP QUALITY GRADE A++

Cannabyss Inc. is the best place online to buy top quality weed, cannabis, vape, marijuana and CBD products. Get your borderless orders delivered at the pickup spot with ease. Top Grade products for client satisfaction.

👉 Click here to Visit our shop! 🛒

El Planteo

Colombia votes on Sunday, May 31 to elect Gustavo Petro’s successor, in an election marked by the polarization between progressive continuity, the return of the traditional right and the advance of a harder right. In that scenario, the cannabis it does not appear as the central theme of the campaign, but it does function as a window to read which country model each candidacy proposes.

Do you think this information is important? Only with you help, we can continue talking about cannabis and psychedelics responsibly and without stigma. Support us from USD 2 per month. Click here.

Cannabis in Colombia: What is allowed and what is pending

Colombia comes to this election with cannabis in a strange situation: medical and scientific use is regulated, but adult use remains without full commercial regulation. In 2016, Law 1787 created the framework for safe and informed access to medicinal and scientific cannabis in Colombia. Then, Decree 1138 of 2025 expanded the framework by recognizing the cannabis flower as a finished product for medical and veterinary purposes, under health controls.

Adult use, on the other hand, continues to be one of the great pending debates. Although in recent years there have been projects to regulate the sale and purchase of cannabis, the initiatives failed to become law.

In 2023, for example, the constitutional reform project promoted by Juan Carlos Losada to legalize cannabis for adult use collapsed in the Senate despite having made progress in previous instances.

The debate, however, moved again in 2026. The First Committee of the House of Representatives in the first debate, it approved a new project to regulate cannabis for adult use in Colombia.

This background, among others, serves as a backdrop to read current positions. In Colombia, talking about cannabis does not only mean asking who is “for” or “against” marijuana. It also forces us to look at what place each candidate gives to medicinal cannabis, self-cultivation, regulated marketing, industry, public health and anti-drug policy.

The cannabis debate also reveals what model of security, rights and economic development each sector imagines.

Elections in Colombia 2026: Who are the candidates and what they say about cannabis

Iván Cepeda: progressive continuity and possible regulatory opening

Cepeda he appears as a candidate for the Historical Pact and as political heir to the Petro government. Their program, according to recent reviews, is organized about three “revolutions”: ethical, social-economic and political, with emphasis on social investment, human rights, victims of conflict, negotiation with armed groups and rejection of militarization as the only security response.

In a note of The Caribbean Language, Cepeda was asked in an interview about whether recreational cannabis should be legal or illegal and responded that it should be legal. There he argued that there is no medical or scientific evidence to demonstrate that this use represents a risk to human life, and that regulation could reduce the violence associated with trafficking and illegal export of the plant.

In 2023, during the debate on the project that sought to regulate the purchase, sale and distribution of cannabis for adult use, Infobae reported that Iván Cepeda he was among the senators of the Historical Pact who gave their approval to the initiative. The project obtained 47 votes in favor and 43 against, but needed 54 affirmative votes because it was a constitutional reform, so it ended up being shelved.

In 2025, Iván Cepeda Castro was also one of the senators who filed previous initiatives to regulate cannabis for adult use, including Draft Legislative Act 001 of 2023 and Draft Legislative Act 566 of 2025.

Furthermore, that same presentation defines the objective of the initiative as regulating the use of cannabis by adults in Colombia and states that it seeks to guarantee fundamental rights, combat illegal trafficking, reduce violence and create a market that can be used by departments, districts and municipalities.

We could say, then, that Cepeda is on the greenest side of the traffic light, but not under a “anything goes”, but through a regulatory posture with controls.

Beyond cannabis, Cepeda has been defending a paradigm shift in drug policy. In one interview with The day, spoke of the “war on drugs” like a “war of eternal failure” and asked if Colombia should continue in that logic or seek solutions through a far-reaching dialogue.

Abelardo de la Espriella: hard line against legalization

From Espriella it represents the clearest case of the red light. His rejection of the legalization of cannabis appears in direct statements and in publications from your own political space, Defenders of the Homeland, where it is stated that “there will be no room for the legalization of marijuana in your government” and he is quoted as saying that the plant is “the entrance door to other drugs”.

The same line appears in another party publication, where an interview with Eva Rey is cited in which he stated: “I am completely anti-drug. I have never used drugs of any kind, nor will I. I am anti-drug”.

Related content: From Punishment to Care: Colombia Redefines its Drug Policy

In August 2025, De la Espriella said that if he became President, he could change the current marijuana law, although he acknowledged that he would have other priorities. According to that note, his position was given in another interview with Eva Rey, where was consulted on topics such as equal marriage, abortion and marijuana.

That rejection connects to the rest of your program. According to The country, his campaign it is based on two central axes: strong-handed security and economic growth. In security, it proposes militarization, mega prisons, an end to “Total Peace” and a strong offensive against drug trafficking.

For the cannabis traffic light, De la Espriella can be placed without too many nuances in a position restrictive/prohibitionist. Not only does it reject the legalization of cannabis for adult use, but it also frames the issue within a broader vision of public order, discipline, security and frontal combat against drugs.

Paloma Valencia: total safety and rejection of the regulation of adult use

Paloma Valencia he comes to the election as one of the main figures of the Uribista right. Your program it is focused on a policy of “total security”, with strengthening of the public force, increase in defense spending, reactivation of aerial fumigation, substitution of illicit crops, cooperation with USA against drug trafficking and suspension of negotiations with illegal groups.

Regarding cannabis, his position has been critical for years. During the legislative debate on the regulation of cannabis for adult use in 2023, the Colombian Senate reported that Valencia, together with the senator German Blanco, opposed the initiative because he considered it a “gateway” to greater addictions, public health problems and a “breakdown of moral values”.

Related content: Colombian Congresswoman Clara López Talked About Drugs and Said She Had Tried ‘Everything’

He has also questioned one of the central arguments of those who defend regulation: the idea that a legal market can reduce the power of drug trafficking. In an interview with W Radio/Caracol, Valencia held that “legal marijuana is not going to end drug trafficking” and reiterated that this would not be the way to reduce violence linked to illegal economies.

On social networks she has also raised an important differentiation: according to Valencia, in Colombia the legalization of consumption would not be discussed —which, according to her, is already allowed in certain margins— but rather the legalization of marijuana crops and marketing. Along these lines, he maintains that legalization does not necessarily end illegality, and gives alcohol as an example.

With that background, Valencia is located on the red side of the cannabis traffic light. His position does not seem to focus on dismantling the existing medical cannabis apparatus, but on opposing the regulation of adult use and the opening of a legal cultivation and marketing market. His view combines arguments of security, public health, drug trafficking control and conservative values.

Claudia López: caution in the face of broad legalization

Claudia Lopez he appears with a more cautious posture. In a debate at the center reported by The Colombian, rejected a generic formulation on “legalizing drugs” and said that such a broad question seemed inconvenient to him. At the same time, he recognized that in several US states the production and consumption of marijuana regulated by the State are already legal, which shows that it does not evade debate, but it does avoid a position of broad liberalization.

In your case the traffic light turns yellow: she does not appear as a prohibitionist candidate in the style of De la Espriella, but neither does she appear as a clear defender of the regulation of cannabis for adult use. His approach seems more prudent, institutional and conditional on the concrete design of public policy.

Sergio Fajardo: institutional security and not very explicit cannabis position

Sergio Fajardo he appears as the center candidate who tries to occupy an intermediate point between Petrism and Uribism. According to The country, its campaign is built on the idea of “serious and safe change”, with emphasis on institutional recovery, education, productive development, security, health, anti-corruption and fiscal responsibility.

Related content: They Wanted to Kick Out a Colombian Congresswoman for Using Cannabis But They Failed!

In security policy, his proposal is organized around Guardian Plan, which seeks to recover territorial control against organized crime, strengthen citizen security and close the way to transnational crime through border control and international cooperation. It also proposes recovering strategic intelligence, coordinating the work between the Prosecutor’s Office, UIAF, Military Forces and Police, increasing the number of professional police officers, doubling Gaula groups and building five new prisons.

Regarding drugs, Fajardo proposes combat drug trafficking by attacking the finances of organized crime and dismantling money laundering networks, with emphasis on strategic intelligence and inter-institutional joint work. It also proposes comprehensive development plans in regions crossed by illicit economies, combining territorial control, infrastructure, social services and community participation.

Until then, his approach seems more institutional than prohibitionist: it does not appear with frontal rhetoric against marijuana or with an explicit defense of legalization. But there is no recent statement where Fajardo clearly states whether he supports or rejects the regulation of cannabis for adult use.

Yes, there is a minor precedent, more personal than programmatic: in quick-format interview content, Fajardo has admitted to having tried marijuana. But that is not enough to classify it as favorable to regulation; It serves, at most, to infer that it does not adopt a moralistic narrative of the “anti-drug” type, as is the case in other candidates.

Having said all this, Fajardo would remain in it yellow: talks about drug trafficking, money laundering, territorial security and development in areas with illicit economies, but does not place cannabis as the axis nor does it formulate a clear proposal on adult use, regulated market or specific reform of cannabis policy.

Juan Carlos Pinzón: security, defense and criticism of legalization

Juan Carlos Pinzón, former Minister of Defense, has a position closer to the security approach. In 2025 he criticized Gustavo Petro’s proposal of legalize marijuana and he described it as a “easy” position, as reported Infobae. His career in defense and fight against drug trafficking also places him within a more restrictive view of drug policy.

Related content: Colombia: Senator María José Pizarro Talks About the Rejection of Cannabis in the Senate

For the traffic light, Finch would be between red and yellow: not necessarily with the moralistic rhetoric of De la Espriella, but with a clear opposition to legalization as a response to drug trafficking.

Read more

https://elplanteo.com/elecciones-colombia-candidatos-marihuaba/?utm_campaign=ICW&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=137038528&utm_content=137038528&utm_source=hs_email