Does Drug Eradication Work?
According to some US government officials, drug eradication efforts have had some success. But statistics from the US Office of National Drug Control Policy show that drug production has increased and prices in the US have fallen since the US has begun spraying herbicides on the coca crops in Latin America. Drug consumption level holds steady. (1)
Past efforts at drug eradication suggest that if fields are sprayed with herbicides in Southern Colombia, new coca fields will spring up elsewhere, perhaps in Colombia, perhaps across the border in Venezuela, or Brazil. Officials say that the plan is to provide alternatives in other areas for the farmers and laborers displaced from Putumayo's coca industry [in the South of Colombia]. But sceptics fear that many will end up swelling the ranks of the guerillas.(2)
Drug eradication forces small farmers off the land. They flee into the cities, where work is scarce or into neighboring Venezuela or Ecuador. Neither country is in a good position to care for these refugees.
The US government says that spraying is "totally safe." But residents of the areas sprayed complain that along with the eradication of coca plants, food crops are destroyed, cattle killed and herbicides dropped on towns. The herbicides used are known to present serious health risks to human beings and the US government requires the manufacturer to label them as hazardous.(3)
For the people in coca growing regions drug eradication brings disease and starvation; in the US it has not reduced the supply of cocaine or raised its street price.
Past efforts at drug eradication suggest that if fields are sprayed with herbicides in Southern Colombia, new coca fields will spring up elsewhere, perhaps in Colombia, perhaps across the border in Venezuela, or Brazil. Officials say that the plan is to provide alternatives in other areas for the farmers and laborers displaced from Putumayo's coca industry [in the South of Colombia]. But sceptics fear that many will end up swelling the ranks of the guerillas.(2)
Drug eradication forces small farmers off the land. They flee into the cities, where work is scarce or into neighboring Venezuela or Ecuador. Neither country is in a good position to care for these refugees.
The US government says that spraying is "totally safe." But residents of the areas sprayed complain that along with the eradication of coca plants, food crops are destroyed, cattle killed and herbicides dropped on towns. The herbicides used are known to present serious health risks to human beings and the US government requires the manufacturer to label them as hazardous.(3)
For the people in coca growing regions drug eradication brings disease and starvation; in the US it has not reduced the supply of cocaine or raised its street price.
