Related Research Articles
Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine.
The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through the use of drug prohibition laws. The think tank Global Financial Integrity's Transnational Crime and the Developing World report estimates the size of the global illicit drug market between US$426 and US$652 billion in 2014 alone. With a world GDP of US$78 trillion in the same year, the illegal drug trade may be estimated as nearly 1% of total global trade. Consumption of illegal drugs is widespread globally and it remains very difficult for local authorities to reduce the rates of drug consumption.
Coca eradication is a strategy promoted by the United States government starting in 1961 as part of its "War on Drugs" to eliminate the cultivation of coca, a plant whose leaves are not only traditionally used by indigenous cultures but also, in modern society, in the manufacture of cocaine. The strategy was adopted in place of running educational campaigns against drug usage. The prohibitionist strategy is being pursued in the coca-growing regions of Colombia, Peru, and formerly Bolivia, where it is highly controversial because of its environmental, health and socioeconomic impact. Furthermore, indigenous cultures living in the Altiplano, such as the Aymaras, use the coca leaf in many of their cultural traditions, notably for its medicinal qualities in alleviating the feeling of hunger, fatigue and headaches symptomatic of altitude sicknesses. The growers of coca are named Cocaleros and part of the coca production for traditional use is legal in Peru, Bolivia and Chile.
Plan Colombia was a United States foreign aid, military aid, and diplomatic initiative aimed at combating Colombian drug cartels and left-wing insurgent groups in Colombia. The plan was originally conceived in 1999 by the administrations of Colombian President Andrés Pastrana and U.S. President Bill Clinton, and signed into law in the United States in 2000.
The war on drugs is a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States. The initiative includes a set of drug policies that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of psychoactive drugs that the participating governments and the United Nations have made illegal. The term was coined by President Richard Nixon and popularized by the media shortly after a press conference given on June 18, 1971 – the day after publication of a special message from President Nixon to the Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control – during which he declared drug abuse "public enemy number one". That message to the Congress included text about devoting more federal resources to the "prevention of new addicts, and the rehabilitation of those who are addicted" but that part did not receive the same public attention as the term "war on drugs". Two years prior to this, Nixon had formally declared a "war on drugs" that would be directed toward eradication, interdiction, and incarceration. In 2015, the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates for an end to the War on Drugs, estimated that the United States spends $51 billion annually on these initiatives, and in 2021, after 50 years of the drug war, others have estimated that the US has spent a cumulative $1 trillion on it.
Cocaleros are the coca leaf growers of Peru and Bolivia. In response to U.S.-funded attempts to eradicate and fumigate coca crops in the Chapare region of Bolivia, cocaleros joined with other grassroots indigenous organizations in the country, such as unionized mine workers and peasants to contest the government. Evo Morales, who became president of Bolivia in 2006, was a leader of the cocalero movement in that country.
Coca tea, also called mate de coca, is an herbal tea (infusion) made using the raw or dried leaves of the coca plant, which is native to South America. It is made either by submerging the coca leaf or dipping a tea bag in hot water. The tea is most commonly consumed in the Andes mountain range, particularly Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and especially in Peru, where it is consumed all around the country. It is greenish yellow in color and has a mild bitter flavor similar to green tea with a more organic sweetness.
Coca paste is a crude extract of the coca leaf which contains 40% to 91% cocaine freebase along with companion coca alkaloids and varying quantities of benzoic acid, methanol, and kerosene. In South America, coca paste, also known as cocaine base and, therefore, often confused with cocaine sulfate in North America, is relatively inexpensive and is widely used by low-income populations. The coca paste is smoked in tobacco or cannabis cigarettes and use has become widespread in several Latin American countries. Traditionally, coca paste has been relatively abundant in South American countries such as Colombia where it is processed into cocaine hydrochloride for distribution to the rest of the world. The caustic reactions associated with the local application of coca paste prevents its use by oral, intranasal, mucosal, intramuscular, intravenous or subcutaneous routes. Coca paste can only be smoked when combined with a combustible material such as tobacco or cannabis.
A drug policy is the policy regarding the control and regulation of psychoactive substances, particularly those that are addictive or cause physical and mental dependence. While drug policies are generally implemented by governments, entities at all levels may have specific policies related to drugs.
The illegal drug trade in Colombia has, since the 1970s, centered successively on four major drug trafficking cartels: Medellín, Cali, Norte del Valle, and North Coast, as well as several bandas criminales, or BACRIMs. The trade eventually created a new social class and influenced several aspects of Colombian culture, economics, and politics.
The Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) is a trade preference system by which the United States grants duty-free access to a wide range of exports from four Andean countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. It was enacted on October 31, 2002 as a replacement for the similar Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA). The purpose of this preference system is to foster economic development in the Andean countries to provide alternatives to coca production. Bolivia has installed capacity to industrialize coca production and its derivatives, since coca has no narcotic effects, but the United States does not make any difference between coca and cocaine. Thus, the U.S. government eliminated this "preference".
The domestic policy of the Evo Morales administration refers to the domestic policy initiatives of the former President of Bolivia, including past pre-presidential advocacies by Morales.
In 2012, coca production in Colombia amounted to 0.2% of Colombia's overall GDP and 3% of Colombia's GDP related to the agricultural sector. The great majority of coca cultivation takes place in the departments of Putumayo, Caquetá, Meta, Guaviare, Nariño, Antioquia, and Vichada.
Narcotics in Bolivia, South America, is a subject that primarily involves the coca crop, used in the production of the drug, cocaine. Trafficking and corruption have been two of the most prominent negative side-effects of the illicit narcotics trade in Bolivia and the country's government has engaged in negotiations with the United States (US) as result of the industry's ramifications.
The illegal drug trade in Peru includes the growing of coca and the shipment of cocaine to the United States. In an example of the balloon effect, dramatic falls in coca cultivation in the late 1990s saw cultivation move to Colombia.
The illegal drug trade in Latin America concerns primarily the production and sale of cocaine and cannabis, including the export of these banned substances to the United States and Europe. The coca cultivation is concentrated in the Andes of South America, particularly in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia; this is the world's only source region for coca.
The Valle de los Ríos Apurímac, Ene y Mantaro, also known as the VRAEM, is a geopolitical area in Peru, located in portions of the departments of Ayacucho, Cusco, Huancavelica, and Junin. It is one of the major areas of coca production in Peru. It is also the center of operation of the far-left terrorist group Shining Path.
La Corporación, also known as the Santa Ana Cartel, was a Bolivian drug cartel and criminal organization, headed in the 1970s and 1980s by notorious drug lord Roberto Suárez Goméz, known as the "King of Cocaine".
Organized crimes in Peru refers to the transnational, national, and local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals who engage in illegal activity in the country, including drug trafficking organizations, terrorism, and attempted murder.
The environmental impacts caused by the production of illicit drugs is an often neglected topic when analysing the effects of such substances. However, due to the clandestine nature of illicit drug production, its effects can be highly destructive yet difficult to detect and measure. The consequences differ depending upon the drug being produced but can be largely categorised into impacts caused by natural drugs or caused by synthetic/semi-synthetic drugs. Natural drugs refer to drugs which are primarily extracted from a natural source such as cocaine or cannabis. Synthetic drugs are produced from material that can't be found in nature and semi-synthetic drugs are made from both natural and synthetic materials such as methamphetamine and MDMA. Drug policy is a large determinant on how organisations produce drugs and thereby, how their processes affect the environment, thus prompting Government bodies to analyse the current drug policy. It is inevitable that solutions to such environmental impacts are synonymous with solutions to overall illicit drug production, however many have noted the reactionary measures undertaken by government bodies and elevate the need of preventative measures instead.
References
- Footnotes
- 1 2 3 Mora, Frank O. "Victims of the Balloon Effect: Drug Trafficking and the U.S. Policy in Brazil and the Southern Cone of Latin America". The Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies 21.2 (1996): 115–22. York University Libraries. 22 Oct. 2011.
- ↑ "Stopping it, How Government Try--And Fail--to Stem the Flow of Drugs". The Economist. 26 July 2001.
The main targets of American supply-reduction campaigns over the years have been Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. The net effect appears to have been a relocation and reorganisation of production, not a cutback. Dramatic falls in coca cultivation in Peru and Bolivia in the late 1990s coincided with an equally dramatic rise in Colombia, even though almost all the top people in Colombia's notorious Cali cartel had been jailed in the mid-1990s.
- ↑ T.W. (2013-04-03). "Why is less cocaine coming from Colombia?". The Economist . Retrieved 2017-04-26.
- 1 2 3 Friesendorf, Cornelius. "Squeezing the Balloon, United States Air Interdiction and the Restructuring of the Southern American Drug Industry in the 1990s". Crime, Law and Social Crime 44 (2005): 35–78. York University Libraries. Web. 22 Oct. 2011.
- Sources
- Gandilhon Michel, "La Guerre à la cocaine à l'épreuve de l'"effet ballon'", Swaps no. 76–77, 2014.