Where Do Drugs Come From?
Cocaine derives from coca leaves grown in the Amazon jungle in Bolivia, Peru and now Colombia. The plants would grow equally well in the other countries in the Amazon (Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador). Some coca leaves are grown on large farms; the rest are grown by small farmers, a few acres at a time, next to bananas, beans and corn and other staple crops.
The leaves are turned into coca paste, often by the growers, and the paste, in turn, refined into cocaine powder. Anyone can produce coca paste from the coca leaves. Producing the actual cocaine powder requires some chemicals and electricity. That is done in secret drug labs, controlled by the drug dealers. The major challenge is to smuggle cocaine into the US.
Coca is an attractive cash crop, especially for small farmers. Most other agricultural crops, such as coffee, bananas, corn are bulky to transport. In underdeveloped countries, like Colombia, transportation from small farm to market is difficult and often nonexistent. A pound of coca paste, by contrast, is easily moved even if roads are poor and trucks nonexistent.
Coca leaves previously used to grow in Bolivia and Peru. The drug labs to convert the paste into cocaine moved into Colombia in the 1970s. Serious eradication efforts, backed by the US, and a blight in the Peruvian coca fields in the 1980s, opened an opportunity for Colombians to raise this crop.
The leaves are turned into coca paste, often by the growers, and the paste, in turn, refined into cocaine powder. Anyone can produce coca paste from the coca leaves. Producing the actual cocaine powder requires some chemicals and electricity. That is done in secret drug labs, controlled by the drug dealers. The major challenge is to smuggle cocaine into the US.
Coca is an attractive cash crop, especially for small farmers. Most other agricultural crops, such as coffee, bananas, corn are bulky to transport. In underdeveloped countries, like Colombia, transportation from small farm to market is difficult and often nonexistent. A pound of coca paste, by contrast, is easily moved even if roads are poor and trucks nonexistent.
Coca leaves previously used to grow in Bolivia and Peru. The drug labs to convert the paste into cocaine moved into Colombia in the 1970s. Serious eradication efforts, backed by the US, and a blight in the Peruvian coca fields in the 1980s, opened an opportunity for Colombians to raise this crop.
