Exploring the differing dynamics in emerging global debates around coca and cocaine regulation

Background:
While cannabis & psychedelics reforms have dominated public discourse on regulation, debates around legalisation & regulation of coca and cocaine have quietly been gathering momentum:

• In 2012, motivated to protect traditional/indigenious culture, Bolivia withdrew from the UN 1961 Single Convention on Drugs, before re-acceding with a reservation on traditional coca leaf use, formally establishing the worlds' 1st legal state-authorised coca market. Bolivia has since instigated a formal WHO review of coca's UN scheduling (ongoing)
• The long term systemic failures of enforcement, eradication & interdiction to prevent expanding production, trafficking & use of cocaine, aswell as negative impacts of the trade in fueling violence, corruption & insecurity, & undermining governance & civic institutions, has fuelled an increasingly vibrant debate around alternatives to cocaine prohibition
• In 2021 a bill to regulate coca and cocaine supply was tabled and debated in the Colombian Senate, & endorsed by the now President Petro
• The Colombian Truth Commission (established as part of the 2016 peace process), in 2022 recommended the regulation of drugs to eliminate a key structural driver of violence, & achieve lasting peace in the region
• In a 2019 human rights test case, a Mexican court authorised two people to legally posess, transport & use cocaine
• In 2023 the municipality of Bern (the Swiss capital) announced a plan for a pilot regulated cocaine market to explore impacts on public health & crimainlity
• In 2024 The Mayor of Amsterdam convened a conference of mayors (inc. Bern, Bogota & Cape Town), local authorities & civil society to explore options for cocaine regulation
• 'safer supply' models making cocaine available on prescription are being explored in Canada to address the threat of adulterated illegal supply
• These efforts collectively represent an underexplored but bold new front in drug reform advocacy, supported by a growing body analysis/proposals from civil society/academia

Methods:

• Provide an historic overview & political analysis of recent evolution in the debate outlined above
• Draw out thematic commonalities & differences evident between the varied regions, political & civil society actors 

Results

• The debate around coca/cocaine regulation has moved from the margins into the political and media mainstream over the past decade
• There is signifincant variation in the focus of advocacy narratives globally; In Bolivia - traditional coca, indiginous rights & anti-colonialism; In Colombia -  disempowering OCGs, peace & security; In Europe - public health & local crime reduction; in Canada - overdose reduction
• The prospect of international reforms remains distant, but successful local innovations/pilots may transform the debate

Conclusion 

• It seems likely that coca/cocaine regulation will advance in the coming years, albeit on different regional trajectories; The drugs/addictions field would usefully engage with and inform emerging policy and practice