6/25/2018

COLOMBIA/DRUGS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Colombian coca cultivation rose again in 2017, reaching a new high, according to an official U.S. assessment released Monday [6-25-18] that is likely to fuel fresh consternation against a key Latin American ally. Coca cultivation increased 11% to 209,000 hectares (516,450 acres) from 188,000 hectares (464,558 acres) in 2016, growing for a fourth consecutive year, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said in its latest annual calculations of Colombian cultivation and production. The cocaine production potential of the coca rose 19% to 921 metric tons in 2017 from 772 metric tons in 2016, the office said. Around 90% of cocaine seized in the U.S. originated from Colombian coca leaf, Mr. Carroll said, and Colombian cocaine production directly translated to increased cocaine use and overdose deaths in the U.S. since 2013. U.S. officials have watched Colombian coca cultivation and cocaine production anxiously since 2013. That year, the U.S. was forced to reduce and ultimately end a program of aerial destruction of coca crops because of health concerns over the use of a toxic defoliant and the Colombian government’s worries that the program was turning many rural residents against the state as it was negotiating a peace deal with Marxist rebels.”

-Louise Radnofsky, “Coca Cultivation in Colombia Reaches New High,” The Wall Street Journal, June 25, 2018 3:26 pm