Author: Ruiz, German Andres Quimbayo
Title: Crops for Illicit Use and Ecocide. Are Illicit Crops Really the Main Cause oe Damage to the Ecosystem in Colombia?
Summary: According to the Colombian government, cocaine consumers are unaware of the ecological disaster caused by production of the alkaloid. If they knew that cocaine is perpetrating ecocide in the country that leads on world production of the drug – Colombia – they would stop consuming it. Based on this premise, the government has organised an information campaign called Shared Responsibility, which uses pictures and statistics to tell people about the destruction caused by coca and cocaine production in the country. The campaign, which has the support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), amongst others, has mainly taken the form of a travelling exhibition that has visited different countries in Europe. As a heading on its website, the campaign states that “The first source of air pollution in the Colombian jungle is smoke from the burning of trees to grow coca.” This indicates – right from the start and without any supporting analysis whatsoever – who the campaign believes is mainly to blame for the catastrophe: the small farmer who grows coca. For decades, Colombia has been implementing supply-side strategies that aim to solve the problem of coca and cocaine production. These strategies have been ineffective and counter-productive. They have failed to reduce production, caused humanitarian crises and worsened the armed conflict that has afflicted the country for so long. In response to the failure of policies to reduce the supply, the government has started to insist that consumer countries need to strengthen policies to curb the demand. This is where the Shared Responsibility campaign seeks to play a role. Again without any analysis whatsoever, it focuses on the other scapegoat in this affair: the consumer. And so the small farmer and the consumer are portrayed as sharing responsibility for ecocide. This ignores the complexity of a problem that is global in scope and involves numerous different players on both the legal and the illegal sides.
Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2008. 20p.
Source: Internet Resource: Drug Policy Briefing Nr. 28
Year: 2008
Country: Colombia
URL:
Shelf Number: 121494
Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction(Colombia)Drug Control PolicyOffenses Against the Environment |
