Cocaine production in Colombia is at a record high despite the US providing around $400m annually to assist in 'war on drugs'
By Miranda Aldersley
Daily Mail
September 20, 2018
Colombian cocaine production rose 31 per cent year on year to hit record levels in 2017, newly released UN statistics show.
The world's largest cocaine producer cultivated around 1,400 tonnes of cocaine last year on some 171,000 hectares.
These figures are a huge blow to the country's war on drugs, to which the US reportedly donates an annual $400m.
The growth in acreage used to produce coca represents an increase of 25,000 hectares, or 17 per cent compared to the previous year.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned that the increased production might hinder efforts to secure peace in the area, with Gloria María Borrero Restrepo, Colombia's justice minister, saying it was 'really very worrying'.
Most cocaine produced in Colombia finds it way to the US, which is the world's largest consumer of the Class A drug.
An estimated 92 per cent of cocaine samples seized by police in the US can be traced to Colombia.
The report also said that the potential market value of cocaine produced in Colombia in 2017 was about $2.7bn (£2bn).
Washington's 'Plan Colombia' initiative, which aims to tackle drug trafficking as well as quell production, has cost them more than $10 billion over the last 15 years.
The country has been trying to stem the production of cocaine since the 1980s and 90s, when Pablo Escobar and his Medellín cartel ran the business.
Colombia has tried various counter-narcotic strategies. In November 2017 its government signed a landmark $300m agreement with the UN which aimed to stem the production of cocaine by compensating farmers who switched from growing coca to cash crops like coffee and cacao.
The goal was to convert about 100,000 hectares in 12 months, but is far off that total with the deadline just over a month away.
President Juan Manuel Santos also tried to shift Colombia’s strategy to confiscation and suspended a scheme which used planes to spray the crops with chemical glyphosate in 2015, after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the chemical might cause cancer.
However, Mr Santos' successor Ivan Duque is now looking to intensify the war on drugs - promising that the country will see 'concrete results' in the next few years.
Mr Duque has authorised the use of aerial fumigation once again, this time with drones.
About 80 per cent of Colombia's coca has been grown in the same area for the last decade - with regions on the Pacific coastline producing the most.
In Narino, a state on the border with Ecuador, more hectares of farmland are dedicated to coca than in the entire country of Peru.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The drug peaceniks say that we are spending billions fighting a losing war on drugs. Not exactly! While we are spending a ton of money in the war on drugs and it seems as though we are losing, we are not really losing.
We have a colossal drug problem in the U.S. If it were not for the illicit drug seizures made daily by the DEA, state drug enforcement agents and local police drug units, we would have a catastrophic number of drug addicts.
The war on drugs is being hindered by the soft on drugs approach in this country. The legalization of marijuana does not help either. The use of pot has always been associated with an increased use of ‘harder’ drugs.
It’s a matter of supply and demand. The Japanese know how to fight the war on drugs. They throw the users in jail or into prison camp-like rehab centers. And in the Philippines drug users are shot along with the drug dealers. Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have all reduced the demand significantly by attacking drug users as well as drug dealers. That’s really winning the war on drugs!
2 comments:
While the US probably is the main target for smugglers, the UK is still a huge illegal importer of cocaine.
By the way, What is a Peacenik?
A peacenik is an opponent of war; a pacifist.
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