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Friday, September 21, 2018

Colombia Breaks Record in Cocaine Production

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: The Guardian

                 Colombia continues to break records for cocaine production, UNODC report says

By: Joe Parkin Daniels in Bogotá

Colombia is desperate to shed its reputation as a nation dogged by the drug trade, but new figures from the United Nations show that it continues to break records for producing cocaine. The South American nation produced a record estimated 1,520 tons of cocaine last year – up 31% from 2016.

In 2017, around 171,000 hectares (423,000 acres) of the South American nation’s land was used to grow coca, the plant whose leaf is the base ingredient of cocaine – up 25,000 hectares (17%) on the year before, according to a report published on Wednesday by the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The same report estimated that enough coca was grown to produce 1,379 UK tonnes or 1,520 US tons of cocaine – up 31% since 2016.

This is despite a peace deal signed in 2016 with leftist rebels the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (or Farc).

That deal, which ended 52 years of civil war that killed 260,000 and displaced over 7 million people, had provisions to formalize land ownership for peasants, and help them switch coca crops for legal alternatives such as coffee and cacao.

Coca is usually grown by poor farmers, but the plant played an important role in the conflict as the Farc would tax harvests, funneling the funds into their war chest.

The vacuum left by the FARC has been filled by myriad other armed groups, from dissident leftwing rebels who chose not to lay down their rifles to rightwing militias originally set up to fight the FARC.

Those factions have pressured coca farmers to steer clear of the peace process’s substitution program, often at the barrel of a gun, and targeted regional activists who campaign in favor of the peace process’s provisions.

Some farmers claim the military have been forcibly eradicating coca before giving them the chance to switch their crops.

In October of last year police opened fire on a crowd of protesting growers in Tumaco, a coca-rich region on the country’s southern Pacific coast. Seven people died, causing a national debate on the government’s willingness to accommodate coca farmers.

The wider Pacific region, where the Farc once held sway, saw stark increases in coca production last year, with production in the three provinces lining the coast together reaching 65,567 hectares, up 13% since 2016.


The latest figures are likely to alarm Washington, which has long provided aid to Colombia in its war on drugs.

Colombia’s foreign minister and the US deputy secretary of state, John Sullivan, “discussed the need for continued action to reduce coca cultivation and cocaine production in Colombia”, at a meeting earlier this month in Washington, according to a state department press release.

The US, which backed the peace process, said in June this year that coca production had increased to 209,000 hectares, a figure higher than the one reached by UNODC and Colombia’s defense ministry.

Colombia’s president, Iván Duque, said last week that he hopes to reduce coca production by 140,000 hectares in 4 years, the length of his term. “It is not easy, but that is the goal we want to set,” he said.

Colombia is currently testing a program to aerially fumigate coca crops with the controversial herbicide glyphosate using unmanned drones. Aerial fumigation was suspended in 2015 after the World Health Organization linked it to cancer, and experts have warned that the practice is unlikely to reduce coca production.

37 comments:

  1. How's that drug war working out, DEA?

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    Replies
    1. Very very well thanks for asking. We have a bigger budget than ever, more far reaching rights than ever (we are practically untouchable now), political backing at unprecedented levels and there is more demand for us than ever. All this despite (or üherhaüs becaueuse) since there are more, cheaper and stronger drugs on erican streets than ever.

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    2. Good, from their perspective this means more work.

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  2. Must be going to other areas and not US because of the immense mark up in price/k

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    1. It's Europe. Cocaine is big time over there right now.

      Phelpso

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    2. Word europe is still in the 80s, am pretty sure the scar face film just came out on their vcrs. Just wait till they get a hold of meth.

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    3. @Phelpso: indeed a fucking tsunami rite now

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  3. This don't add up with all the seizures. Plus meth is the drug of choice

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  4. In other news the U.S. breaks the record on new addicts!!!
    Both manufacturing and addiction are by products of one another. Why is it so hard to understand this???

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    1. U.s ? Nah cuh here in south l.a is hard to get and is of low quality to trash. Meth doe every body has it.

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  5. Most of that must be going to Europe because the US is dry AF.

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  6. Y'all complaining about being dry, lmao it's always snowing in the southwest... Meth is everywhere, but let's not kid ourselves la copo de nieve is still America's cup of coffee

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    1. Well, I’m not in the Southwest, so I wouldn’t know. However, here in the Midwest, it’s fairly dry. Must be nice to be you.

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    2. Lol find a connect, and don't be so bitter.

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    3. Its dry in San Diego I keep hearing the homies complain nobody has blow anymore.

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    4. @10:59... That’s funny, my nickname is El Bitter.

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    5. How is it dry in SAN DIEGO??? You must have horrible or no connects at all- you could throw a rock, and hit the border fence

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  7. The drug war is a joke,,,,Was and always will be...Its all about dirty politicians and the vast wealth it brings to their filthy hands. Who cares about the addicts....

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    1. There was a true story I read once about a man that was busted up on the side of the road. He was beaten so bad that no one ever bothered to help him. Many people passed him by without a care in the world. Until finally someone decided to help him get back on his feet.

      I told you guys a long time ago that everything repeats itself in life. We are ALL living the modern day version of that story. Because we are the ones that decide wether or not we will help those in need. If we choose to ignore that badly beaten man that’s on us. But if we choose to help WE help make the world a little better by having helped out. So don’t ever say who cares about addicts. For the same thing can be said about you should you ever find yourself in that position of that badly beaten man. - Sol Prendido

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    2. Well said Sol,

      I myself am and addict, been clean for a long time now. But if it weren't for people caring for me, and giving me a hand up because they could, i probably wouldn't be here.

      7:06 - I broke my neck and got hooked on pain pills, then after about a year they cut my script off, and i hit the street. I dont care who you are, if you hurt yourself like that, and are on opiates for a year, you're going to be an addict. I've been clean for a long time now, im happy, live a good life, have a career, and all that. But if it weren't for someone caring for me i'd be dead, rather then the productive member of society i am now.

      Phelpso

      Phelpso

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    3. Phelpso I’m glad to hear you doing better bro. Stay positive. - Sol Prendido

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    4. Thanks Buddy!

      Phelpso

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  8. Yet round ma neck of the woods is hard to cop. Meth is everywhere and weed is played out.

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  9. Up 31% since 2016!Holy crap!They must have new markets,need to grow more to make up for all the at sea big seizures or the population is greatly increasing since the 80's when cocaine was king!
    Look at how quick that vacuum got filled after Farc.If it's not them it will be someone else.Obviously,like Mexico there is no 'discentive (if that's a word meaning opposite of incentive) or minimal consequences or punishment.

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  10. It ain't dry. I live in Pittsburgh and came is everywhere. Now as far as heroin, shit has always been hit and miss. To many fingers throwing fentanyl and garbage cut on heroin. I'm laying here now in full withdrawal because peeps fucking with the dope. I long for some good 80 o/o + Mexican brown. I sure hope I get it before I get these 20 years in the joint I'm about to do. Face it folks if you ain't using drugs, then don't start, because your getting it first hand from and old junkie who been doing heroin since I was 12 in 1973. Drugs destroys lives. I'm about to spend the rest of my life, till they cremate me when I die in prison. It wouldn't be so bad but I spent my 20 and 30's in penitentiary across 3 states. Drugs is for dummies like me.

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    1. You see people drugs are no good for you. Please say no to drugs. - Sol Prendido

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    2. @10:24. Preach. These young cats are overly willing to drop anything in a pipe and smoke it. Keep your head up. Wish you the best sir.
      PTB

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    3. You dont sound dumb. Get some treatment in the pen and try to make your life better bro.

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    4. Damn man, sorry to hear- what did you get 20 years for??
      And that mexi brown/gray is still abundant in chicago- luckily

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  11. in the netherlands we are breaking records, 50 tons seized so far this year, the big busts are on the rise, multi ton seizures, quality is up and more is being used. According to the sewer water of Amsterdam 40.000 lines of the product are being sniffed away daily.

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    1. Sheeeeeesh, bring it over the pond and share with us Greedy Americans.

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    2. Lmao they calculate it by lines?! 😂😂🤣🤣

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  12. i call bs, unless its being moved to different part of the world other than the u s of a, all the blow sold now is cut to garbage to stretch it out since there's just not much around anymore when a shipment is caught by the guachos cocaine is now the drug with the least presence with meth and fentanyl topping the list

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    1. They say most of it is going to Europe.

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  13. Most is grown peru though, most likely government run

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  14. An intelligent (oxymoron?) DEA would work with USA industry to replace lidocaine and benzocaine with cocaine in skin anesthetic products. An added ingredient could make cocaine extraction difficult. This would help farmers and offer 10% to 20% product to genuinely improve pain relief of sunburn and skin wound anesthetic.

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  15. 10:24 ?Sewer waters would not lie,
    old time addicts wouldn't either, it is admirable the way they live and survive, should share more of their experiences and philosophy.

    ReplyDelete

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