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WOLA Drug War Monitor

Coca is not cocaine
Coca is the sacred leaf of the Andean people, commonly used for chewing, making coca tea and relieving the effects of altitude sickness, hunger and common ailments. Cocaine, a European invention, made through the processing of the coca leaf with other chemicals is a harmful drug that causes [...]

REPORT:  Drug War Monitor, July 2002.  This is a publication of the Washington Office on Latin America’s “Drugs, Democracy and Human Rights” project, which examines the impact of drug trafficking and U.S. international drug control policies on human rights and democratization trends throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.  WOLA Drug War Monitor
 
REPORT: Children [...]

English
Allen, Catherine. The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean Community. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988.
Burchard, Roderick E. Coca Chewing and Diet. Current Anthropology 33: 1-15, 1992.
Davila, Amanda. Participation, Not Eradication. In Why People Grow Drugs. Michael Smith ed. PANOS, 1990.
Healy, Kevin. Coca, the State, and the Peasantry [...]

General Strategy
·The U.S. government should evaluate the effectiveness of the current source country supply-side strategy in the war on drugs and acknowledge its demonstrated failure to reduce drug consumption in the United States.
· The U.S. should recognize studies that have determined that domestic education, prevention, and rehabilitation programs are more effective in altering drug [...]

Population
Population: 8,973,281 (2004, estimated); 9,827,522 (2007, projected)
Indigenous population: : 60% (Quechua 30%, Aymara 25%, Other 5%)
Official languages: Spanish, Quechua, Aymara, Guarani
Per capita GNP: $900, the poorest in South America
Life expectancy: 65.14 years, (the lowest in South America and second lowest in the western hemisphere)
Geography
Area: 424, 164 Sq. Mi. [...]

Originally published on ISN Security Watch, September 8, 2006.
Zero coca policies and a lack of security harm sustainable economic development and contribute to a poor history of alternative development in Bolivia and Colombia.
By Sam Logan 
Alternative development programs in South America’s Andean countries have a long history of tension and conflict. Many examples [...]