Weekly Chart: Drug Production and Eradication in Latin America
Weekly Chart: Drug Production and Eradication in Latin America
The region is home to the top three cocaine-producing countries worldwide, plus one of the largest heroin producers.
It’s time to take a look at illicit drugs in Latin America, given that the UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs takes place April 19 to 21. UNGASS, as the meeting is best known, promises to reconsider a costly—and some argue, ineffective—war on drugs.
Cocaine and heroin consumption is up globally and Latin American supply is meeting the demand. Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia were the top cocaine-producing countries in the world in 2014, respectively, according to the U.S. State Department’s annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), released in March 2016. Mexico ranks third after Afghanistan and Burma when it came to heroin production in the same year. And nearly every country in Latin America and the Caribbean is a stop for drug traffickers.
AS/COA Online looks at the region’s top producing countries, plus eradication efforts.
