Documentos OCCO: Un mito conveniente: el "desarollo" y las políticas anti-narcóticos en Colombia

Abstract

Today the causes of illicit drug cultivation are almost universally recognised to have socio-economic roots. It is argued that what is needed in response is 'development'. However, the concept of development under which drug policies such as Alternative Development (AD) operate is largely divorced from centuries of practical experience. 'Development' has become a collection of isolated rural initiatives, instead of, as it was traditionally understood, structural change in the national economy towards higher value activities. The result has been the repeated failure of such policies. Drug policy analysts have also neglected structural factors when assessing the sources of cultivation. National economic models are considered irrelevant, and are ignored. It is assumed that AD, if implemented correctly, will work equally well in any economic environment. Decades of failure demonstrate that this is not the case. The paper argues that a genuine 'development-focused' policy would be based, not on isolated projects, but positive structural change