I don't know about cocaine, but I know a little about Colombia. This is a bold move that could single-handedly project the Country to a first world player position.
Also Colombia won't become a first world country any time soon, the infrastructure is lacking and the country has three different mountain ranges. Furthermore, and I say it as a Spanish national, their culture comes from the latin/Spanish culture and that has a lot of anti-capitalist cultural implications that will nevertheless drag any possible economic growth.
* Guerilla is a movement born and driven by farmers, where they weren't receiving aids from the central government, so they got into this business so they could afford themselves some security and sovereignty over the government that wouldn't care less about these country people.
* Paramilitaries are more like mercenaries. They would basically be the guys that would do the dirty work of killing people that there is no reason to kill legally (i.e. enemies that the army should fight). These paramilitary groups have been hired (or created) by corrupt politicians and big companies to seize lands rich in gold or oil from their rightful owners. These groups would also end up being part of the trafficking networks.
The current president has been demonstrated to have relationship with these paramilitary trafficking groups. That is why the president isn't pushing any effort that would affect the way the cartels work. Congress is pushing in this direction, but the government party is still majority in the congress, so it has been a challenge.
A government entity that manages Cocaine networks would be a big opportunity for growing businesses, as it happens with some of the liquor brewers in the country. But that is directly against the interests of the current president. We all hope to change this in the next elections, as the current cartels are so powerful that they buy out, blackmail and kill almost any judge, senator, entity or individual that tries to fight back.
Seems like a short-term and inflammatory gain at best.
Oh, and Ethiopia. And Java. Hawaii, probably.
Basically if you can grow top-notch coffee, you can grow coca.
Don't underestimate head starts.
Elsewise, the Chinese dominance of the global tea trade didn't last much longer after the first tea plants were smuggled out and the Indian tea trade started up.
I'm not sure I am underestimating head starts here. All it would take is for one other country to open up to one monied and eager corporation and poof, first mover advantage, gone.
I was surprised to learn from wikipedia that Columbia has separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches which is usually designed to create checks and balances that undermine corruption. With that said there is still an inordinate amount of corruption (evidently).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Colombia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Colombia
P.S. It feels a little lame to be citing wikipedia, but I don't know much about Columbia other than what I know from their drug lore.