"1987-97: DESPITE USD 800 MILLION IN INVESTMENT IN THE CHAPARE COCA-GROWING REGION, 100,000 HECTARES OF LICIT CROPS , AND ROAD AND OTHER INFRASTRUCTURE CONSTRUCTION, THERE WAS STILL THE SAME AMOUNT OF ILLEGAL COCA HECTARAGE IN 1997 AS IN 1987; THUS, IT WAS CONTAINMENT AND "COMPLIMENTARY DEVELOPMENT" RATHER THAN ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT."

ROCHA    2002LAPAZ01322   APRIL 2002

 

 JB Comments:

The US, without consulting me wasted 800 million dollars so I cannot drink coca tea.  The only way out of this stupidity is to legalize coca leaf products in other countries and provide Chapare coca growers with a legitimate market.  This would also allow the rest of us to use a pleasant benign stimulant, and many thousands of obese north Americans would lose a little flab.