New Report on Coca Cultivation

The State Department released this year’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. It reveals an increase in the amount of coca cultivation, demonstrating yet again that U.S. drug policy is a failure. The foundation of this policy is that if cultivation decreases, then the price of cocaine will increase, which will in turn lead fewer people to buy it because it’s so expensive. Despite billions of dollars, massive aerial herbicide spraying, crop substitution efforts, manual crop destruction, and beefed up military patrols, the cultivation of coca continues. In the context of supply and demand, the U.S. focuses mostly on supply, while demand (i.e. Americans taking large amounts of cocaine) is barely addressed.

See here for a very good discussion of the report and its implications. My U.S.-Latin America students should recognize the author of the blog—Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy is also the author of an assigned chapter in the book Drugs and Democracy in Latin America: The Impact of U.S. Policy. Or at least I hope you’ve read it, since the midterm is today…