In December 2009, the Congress in Colombia passed a reform to the 1991 Constitution, which considered the possession and consumption of certain quantities of drugs for personal use legal, to enact constitutional prohibition. This briefing shows the changes that this constitutional amendment entails and evaluates the principle potential consequences.

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In Colombia there has recently been a change to the personal dose issue, one that could be seen as a major and challenging regression. We are talking about a reform to the 1991 Constitution, passed by the Congress on December 9, 2009 and according to which the possession and consumption of a personal dose of controlled substances is prohibited. With this reform we have gone from a situation in which the law considered the possession and consumption of certain quantities of drugs for personal use legal, thanks to a decision taken by the 1994 Constitutional Court, to their constitutional prohibition.

The above should be considered within the context where many countries around the world have chosen to make the repression of possession and consumption more flexible, following the acknowledgement of the failure of the drugs policies that have come to dominate the international scene. Thus for example, in Europe, Portugal depenalized the possession of any kind of controlled substance for personal use. In the Netherlands consumption is not penalized and the sale of cannabis is allowed in certain establishments. Argentina recently depenalized drug possession for personal use through a court decision. Countries such as Uruguay and Chile do not impose sanctions if the personal dose is consumed in private.

The purpose of this report is to show the changes that this amendment entails and to carry out an evaluation of the principle potential consequences, at least at the legal level.