Colombian Coca Crop Soars to Two-Decade High

(Fall 2018) Over 516,000 acres of land were used for coca cultivation in Colombia last year, a recent brief from the White House revealed. Coca, the source for cocaine, has been on the rise for the past five years and now has achieved a level of production not seen in over 20 years.

In 2017, President Donald Trump warned that he would remove Colombia from the U.S. list of war-on-drugs partners if the South American nation did not reduce its swelling coca production. Colombia then aimed to eliminate more than 247,000 acres of coca cultivation through both mandatory and voluntary measures. The country reached its compulsory target but was far from garnering the voluntary switch to other crops.

The increase in coca is occurring while the number of new cocaine users and fatal overdoses keeps climbing higher in the United States. The White House notes that the number of individuals perishing from cocaine-related overdoses has increased over 100% since 2013.

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