Colombia’s coca crops grew to ‘historic levels’ last year: UN

aljazeera.com ^

[BenLurkin]

Colombian lands planted with coca, the plant from which cocaine is made, reached their highest levels in two decades last year...

That continued an upward production trend that dates back to 2014 while the uptick in the area planted with coca was the first in three years.

Colombia has long been the world’s largest producer of cocaine, a highly addictive drug that is illegal in most countries, and it has faced pressure, notably from the United States, to crack down on production.

But government efforts to get farmers to move away from illegal coca crops have faced a series of challenges, including a lack of promised subsidies and other incentives.

Many poor Colombians involved in coca farming say they have no other choice.

Colombia’s new left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, who has called the war on drugs “irrational”, has proposed regulating narcotics, expanding voluntary crop substitution programmes, focusing enforcement on drug gang leadership and increasing social funding in production areas.

[BenLurkin]

[blueunicorn6]

Medicine.

[dfwgator]

It’s propping up the governments in Colombia and Peru
You ask any D.E.A. man, he’ll say, “There’s nothin’ we can do”
From the office of the president
Right down to me and you, me and you

It’s a losing proposition but one you can’t refuse
It’s the politics of contraband
It’s the smuggler’s blues
Smuggler’s blues

-Glenn Frey (Smuggler’s Blues)

[econjack]

Figures. Something we don’t need is thriving.

[Vaduz]

Bingo

[Baldwin]

Climate change doesn’t seem to have an affect on the coca.

[robel]

It must be immune to climate change, unlike food crops.

[BenLurkin]

bttt!

[monkeyshine]

focusing enforcement on drug gang leadership and increasing social funding in production areas

I think Pablo Escobar tried the same tactics.

[joshua c]

so at least the price of something is going down

now if only something could be done about the high price of hookers