The global “war on drugs” has been fought for several decades now and without preventing the long-term trend of increasing drug supply and use. Beyond this failure, the UNODC has identified many serious negative “unintended consequences” of the drug war – including the stigma and discrimination faced by a range of populations.

So, this week on Ep182 we get international finance expert Luc LaPointe on the line from the southern Colombian city of Cali where he is studying the possibilities of changing the image of marijuana and coca in Colombia to include an awareness of their traditional and medicinal properties.

We talk frankly about what needs to be done, how medicinal marijuana can be a force for change for the campesinos in the region, the politics, the meetings being held and beyond. Certainly, for LaPointe this is a challenge on a day to day basis and one which definitely merits listening to.

Having grovelled, begged and possibly lost a couple of friendships in the process, I managed to secure permission to visit Colombia's FARC guerrillas at their temporary camp in Las Colinas, Guaviare.

This is my summation of events and my take on what is going on in Guaviare, one of Colombia's most problematic regions. It's here we have coca growing, demobilizing FARC guerrillas, paramilitary groups, dissident groups of the FARC, little Colombian state presence and huge areas of land covering strategic rivers which lead to neighbouring Brazil and Venezuela.

Who did I meet with and what was the experience like? Well you'll have to tune in. But, I can let you know that I had a long conversation with El Medico Mauricio, a high-ranking guerrilla who was present at the peace dialogues in Havana, Cuba. It was quite the experience.