Up in Smoke

I understand the negative impact cocaine has on people and why a government would want to try to control/eliminate it's use and production. My only problem with this method is that burning down parts of the rain forest doesn't seem like the best solution to me.

Burning all those chemicals can't be good for the environment and the fires must take a tole on the wildlife there as well. This may seem like a totally separate issue, but I think people try to solve issues individually and don't always consider the bigger picture.

like how the use of herbicides to kill coca plants in Columbia resulted in humans as well as their live stock and most likely other animals to get sick. as well as killing different species of plants other than coca. plants that produce food for the Columbian people and animals.

At this point I wonder if we're supposed to chose between a healthy environment or drug control. there must be a better solution to issues concerning cocaine than this. I don't think the results of efforts put forth in order to control the production of cocaine amount to or are worth the risks imposed on the environment.

Great report,

You are just showing what is happening with the war on drugs, unfiltered, just what happened when you were there. Most people have no idea where things come from, be it whatever it may be. You guys are shedding light on things that allow people to better understand the entire process. Keep going to the source. Keep it up guys...

r.e.m. is the shisnit!!

dude, regan had to fund the c.i.a.
remember nicaragua
what the fuck, this is just media bull shit
the drugs are delt by our ones
listen to j z.

Niggas Wanna bring the 80s back,
That’s okay with me, that’s where they made me at.

its quite possible that the war on drugs has unleashed a string of unintended consequences that the US didn't anticipate, nor is equipped to handle. as one example of our ongoing look at the limits of us power, the war on drugs isn't going so well. coca production and the resultant cocaine production has gone back up (after an initial dip). meanwhile the coca eradication has pissed off a nation of people who've relied on the plant for generations.

I'm always fascinated by how things are made and oftentimes, the disconnect between the manufacturing process and the final product. Like tracing a $150 pair of designer jeans back to its source in a Asian sweatshop, this pod gives you a glimpse of the not-so-glamorous, impoverished , backwater conditions from which coke originates. One wonders about the environmental impact of the chemicals used in the production of coke. Blowing up such a lab in the rainforest--expedient and practical on but certainly not low-impact when it comes to rainforest habitat.

In 1996, the Chapare region of Bolivia grew the coca that accounted for 25% of American cocaine, and the U.S. government was paying farmers around $2,000 per hectare to voluntarily eradicate their coca fields. When that didn't work, they pressured the Bolivian government to go with forced eradication, and, as a result coca production in Colombia shot up, forcing the U.S. to launch a multi-billion dollar military assistance program, Plan Colombia. Now coca production seems to be rising again in both nations, and it's possible that America's War on Drugs might hold lessons for our War on Terror... Geo-political questions aside, both when I covered it with Lisa Ling 1996, and with Adam Yamaguchi and Tracey Chang in 2005, the Chapare was a vivid and interesting place to be. I've never been there on vacation, but an adventurous traveler might consider it.