Cocaine Production in Colombia at Record High Despite U.S. Providing Around $400m Annually

[Straight Shooter]

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.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...pite-400m-anti-drugs-funding-annually-US.html

Reason #1,5647 why the drug war should end and DEA abolished. We're flushing $ down the toilet

 

[georges]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...pite-400m-anti-drugs-funding-annually-US.html

Reason #1,5647 why the drug war should end and DEA abolished. We're flushing $ down the toilet

So that you can have more cartels and more gang members killing each other and innocent bystanders because of fucked up drug related deals or territory problems?? Nonsense icardfacepalm: Add to this than drugs are more nocive in the end because they destruct the health of a normal person and drug related treatments cost more to implement than the price of the drug themselves. Lock up drug dealers and anyone related to cartels for life. Drugs and people who sell them are a cancer for the society.

 

[meesterperfect]

without drugs all those people who work in the US law/court/penal system would be out of jobs.
its a business and its not only the traffickers who rely on it to make money.

Drugs, War, Illness, Lies, Fear, are all businesses in which many people profit from.

PS why do you think Colombia is our friend? The hot coffee and the hot women?

Just like why is Afghanistan the only country we invaded and still occupy.

Why do you think Pablo was an enemy? The coke he was exporting or the fact that he wouldn't share the profits?