HomeNewsBriefWhy Did Ecuador Toughen Up Drug Laws?
BRIEF

Why Did Ecuador Toughen Up Drug Laws?

DRUG POLICY / 3 OCT 2015 BY ELYSSA PACHICO EN

Ecuador's Congress approved tougher penalties for small-time drug traffickers, an about-face from a more liberal policy which may have been prompted by the president's stated "zero tolerance" approach to heroin use.

The new drug law will increase penalties for those caught trafficking small quantities of drugs, the Associated Press reported. Previously, defendants would face a minimum of two to six months in prison for trafficking small amounts of narcotics. Those caught trafficking larger amounts will face between three to five years in prison, up from one to three years. 

The law follows a prior set of reforms approved by Ecuador's drug agency, CONSEP, which lowered the threshold for legal drug possession in the country. Previously, defendants would not be prosecuted if they were caught carrying less than one gram of heroin. Under Ecuador's new policy, that's been changed to 0.1 grams. 

Legal Drug Possession in Ecuador, Before and After

 Type of Drug          Before Ecuador's Drug Reforms              After Ecuador's Drug Reforms             
Heroin  Up to 1 gram Up to 0.1 grams
Cocaine Up to 50 grams Up to 2 grams
Marijuana Up to 300 grams Up to 20 grams

One of the most prominent critics of the reform has been the head of Ecuador's public defender's office, Ernesto Pazmiño. In an interview with newspaper El Comercio, he called the law "desperate" and "inefficient," saying it would criminalize drug use and fill up the country's prisons with low-level offenders serving unjust sentences. 

In response, Minister of Justice Ledy Zuñiga said the law would target "microtraffickers," rather than those who consume drugs. "We're not looking to criminalize consumption," she said. 

Ecuador has recently prioritized combating small-scale drug trafficking: President Rafael Correa recently said that 85 percent of the country's anti-drug agents are now focused on this issue. 

InSight Crime Analysis

Correa's government previously had a more progressive stance towards drug policy, which included releasing drug mules from prison. The policy turn-around follows a series of statements by President Correa, in which he said Ecuador needed to tackle youth drug consumption, with a special focus on heroin. "We've got to put micro-traffickers in jail," he said, later adding that the country needed to deploy "zero tolerance" towards heroin use. In another speech, he railed against the "impunity" that he said microtraffickers enjoyed in the justice system.

In its last annual report, CONSEP does not include data on drug consumption rates in Ecuador. In his interview with El Comercio, Public Defender Ernesto Pazmiño said there has been an increase in heroin use in the country, according to heroin overdose statistics kept by the Ministry of Health. However, there is no evidence that this increase in use came about because of lax drug possession laws, he added. 

SEE ALSO:  Ecuador News and Profiles

"I'm convinced that the president was given information without any technical evidence," he told the newspaper. "That is, they said: there's more [drug] consumption and it's because of [the penal code]. The immediate reaction was let's attack this by going after the penal code."

Ecuador drug policy expert Jorge Paladines Rodriguez echoed Pazmiño's comments and told InSight Crime there was "no evidence" that the country's more liberal drug laws had led to greater drug consumption or trafficking. It's also possible the new policy is meant to better appease Ecuador's security forces, who never liked the previous drug laws, Paladines said. Notably, Correa has previously had a tense relationship with Ecuador's police forces. 

"From a realpolitik point of view, this is a desperate cry to keep from losing popularity on an issue where there never was a state response, when it came to [drug use] prevention..." Paladines told InSight Crime. "And since we're a society that focuses on punishment, the best response was [changing] the penal code." 

Hannah Hetzer, the Senior Policy Manager for the Americas at advocacy group the Drug Policy Alliance, called the move "extremely disappointing backtracking."

"President Correa is masquerading this under the pretense of protecting youth from drugs, when really this will only fill Ecuadorian prisons with people – mostly women – who are often forced into the drug trade, either out of violence or economic necessity," she said.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ECUADOR / 10 MAY 2022

Ecuador has seen its sixth large-scale prison massacre since the start of 2021, with at least 44 prisoners being killed…

BOLIVIA / 8 NOV 2022

The Amazon is one of the world’s most biodiverse regions, where wildlife trafficking threatens hundreds of thousands of species.

ECUADOR / 8 NOV 2022

Environmental crime is devastating the Amazon. What are these five Amazonian states doing to protect it?…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…