Deputies from Renovación Nacional (RN) recently delivered a letter to President Gabriel Boric requesting support to promote a bill that seeks to implement mandatory drug testing for various State authorities, parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors.
The initiative, presented by parliamentarians Camila Flores and Sofía Cid, also seeks to establish harsh sanctions against legislators who test positive for substance use, such as preventing them from running for re-election and even being immediately removed from their positions.
“We cannot have authorities who are drug users (…), everyone has to submit to a drug test and have sanctions that are clear and categorical, such as the loss of their positions, because it cannot be that we have people who have conflicts of interests, whether at the time of judging, at the time of legislating or when making political and administrative decisions to combat drug trafficking,” Flores said.
The legislator insisted that, although someone who consumes drugs is not committing a crime, “it is not clear who supplies them with these narcotics, that is a crime, and it is called trafficking.”
“That is why I have presented this project and I hope that if the President of the Republic has a real commitment to combat drug trafficking, he will support it, sponsor it, give it urgency,” he added.
Flores insisted that no authority should be exempt from blame if consumption is proven: whether they are judges, prosecutors, ministers and even “the highest magistracy which is the President of the Republic,” they should all be removed from their position.
Finally, the deputy insisted that “if we are going to combat drug trafficking, organized crime, we need authorities that are truly committed against this and that do not have, I insist, a conflict of interest. On the one hand, supposedly, trying to punish these criminals, but, on the other hand, with a soft and friendly hand, receiving the drugs that they buy from them, that they supply from drug trafficking.”
This Monday it was announced that Socialist Party deputy Nelson Venegas presented his resignation to the House Ethics Commission after confirming that he had tested positive for drugs.
Venegas argued that it is because he is undergoing medical treatment, whose medication, prescribed by a professional and purchased under prescription, is part of the methamphetamine family.
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