COCAINE

                                               - this is a picture of a kilo brick of cocaine

HOW COCAINE CAME TO DOMINATE...

• During the 1970's the Colombian Drug Lords began focusing their attention on supplying a vast amount of cocaine as opposed to marijuana.

• There were two reasons for the Colombian Drug Lords focus on cocaine as opposed to marijuana:  FIRST, marijuana began to be produced in the US and so therefore there became less of a demand for it from outside suppliers.  SECOND, cocaine can be transported much more easily and has a much higher profit than does marijuana.

• Cocaine became the Colombians main drug of export.

COLOMBIA'S ROLE IN THE COCAINE INDUSTRY...

• In 1978 Carlos Lehder, a Medellin cartel member, forever changed the way drugs were trafficked.  He purchased a small island off the coast of the Bahamas, called Normans Cay,  and from there on drugs could be easily shipped to the US.  Experts say that the first meeting of the Medellin cartel actually happened on this island.  

• During the 1970’s and 80’s Colombia acted as the main processing and marketing center for the coca paste or base that was imported from the surrounding areas, where most of the coca plant was grow.  

• In the late 1980's when law enforcement began to really crack down on the transporting of coca base to Colombia, the Colombians began planting and growing there own coca plants.  

---the pharmacology of cocaine:

        www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/buyers/pharmacology/cocaine.html

--another link describing the affects of cocaine and how it is trafficked:

        www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/cocaine.htm

Thoumi, Francisco E. (1995).  Political Econonmy & Illegal Drugs in Colombia.  Colorado: Lynne Rienner

George, Susan (1992).  The Debt Boomerang.  San Francisco: Westview Press

Scott, Peter D. & Marshall, Johnathan  (1991).  Cocaine Politics.  Los Angeles: University of California Press

Gootenberg, Paul  (1999).  Cocaine; Global Histories.  New York: Routledge