How to ruin entire nations and destroy untold millions of lives, as explained to me by a slender young man with a pencil moustache, a furtive look, and a machete dangling in a braided leather scabbard on his hip, in a jungle drug laboratory — two benches covered with a plastic tarp — a day’s walk from the nearest road, in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada mountains:
Said the slender man, “Most farmers, mucho trabejo, poco dinero” — much work, little money — “but coca farmers, poco trabejo, mucho dinero.” Which pretty much says it all.
I walked away convinced that the War On Some Drugs cannot be won by going after the supply. Xocaine is just too easy to grow and make. I’ve left out the details of durations and proportions, which are tricky to pin down; but the requisite technical knowledge is ubiquitous in Colombia, and it’s much too late to stuff that particular mushroom cloud back into its uranium casing. The chemistry is too simple and too crudely effective to be stopped.
As for the raw coca, well — “Drug production remains the same regardless of the anti-narcotic strategy,” says Francesco Fiori, head of mission for Medecins sans Frontieres in Bogota, dismissing a decade of anti-drug efforts, and the countless thousands of tons of toxic herbicides airdropped on Colombia in that time, with a contemptuous shrug.
And so the cocaine trade continues to fuel the seemingly endless low-grade civil wars that wrack both Colombia and Mexico, arms entire guerrilla armies and countless gangs of brutal thugs, kills thousands and renders millions homeless, and gnaws relentlessly at the future of both nations with both the horror of violence and the rot of corruption — while the USA wastes billions every year on futile posturing, and yuppie coke snorters and crackheads alike don’t even realize that every gram of their cocaine is bathed in blood. Not that they would care if they did.
Some problems don’t have technical solutions, no matter how much money you throw at them. Sometimes what needs fixing is your laws and/or your society.
Legong: I know I am replying to this pathetic, racist statement a little late and the whole ignorant rant probably doesn’t even deserve a reply. Wanhenglo, if we were all to generalise about...
Legong: I know I am replying to this pathetic, racist statement a little late and the whole ignorant rant probably doesn’t even deserve a reply. Wanhenglo, if we were all to generalise about...
Sky Goodden: This is startling, refreshing, overdue, and damn good. Thank you, Shary.
Mark: It’s not just in Canada, it seems all over artists don’t get the local recogtnition they should. I was in Malaga where Picasso was born and it is much different, but then he is...
Seenloitering: The “gender analysis” in this article is upside down. Marie Calloway is a threat to the status quo because she threatens the myth that women are morally superior, above...
Jefry: I do not really like to read a story like a novel or a real story but I think this is very interesting and need to be read
Guest: I didn’t want babies or a period any more. I KNEW without a doubt I did not want children so I had been asking for a hysterectomy since I was 19. I finally got it at 39. My...
Djzklj: Pretty interesting article, despite that I don’t wanna make a voyage there
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