Class Year

2008

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

Spring 2006

Abstract

Cocaine politics continues to take a toll on Colombian social, political, economic, and legal stability. Coca is indigenous to the Andean Mountains and for hundreds of years, native populations and immigrants to the region have consumed its leaves for both medicinal and customary purposes. The United States consumes cocaine at a rate of over 300 metric tons per year. Each year approximately 6,548,000 North Americans consume cocaine, annually spending $43.6 billion. In an effort to curb this consumption, and because coca is the base of cocaine, the American and Colombian governments have combined forces using pesticide in an attempt to eradicate the problem at its perceived source, the coca plant.

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