NCJ Number
129913
Journal
International Journal of the Addictions Volume: 25 Issue: 3A Dated: (1990-1991) Pages: 295-316
Date Published
1991
Length
22 pages
Annotation
The impact of coca and cocaine on the social and economic policies of Peru are examined.
Abstract
Cocaine production, trafficking, and addiction are three of Peru's most serious contemporary social problems. Data comes from extensive ethnographic fieldwork over a period of five years. The Peruvian economy has always been tied to the production and use of coca leaves, and Peruvian law enforcement agents collaborate with drug traffickers. Many corrupt government employees and police officers also engage in marketing coca paste at the street level. Unlike the channels of formal corporate penetration where the nation-State plays an important intermediary role, in the underground economy, penetration is more direct. Politically, the government has been and continues to be, incapable of controlling some areas of the national territory as well as some economic sectors developing within the country at large. Petty drug dealing, especially among the urban poor and the unemployed, has turned into an informal income source. Unless radical changes in international drug policy are made, the supply of cocaine will remain more or less the same. 11 notes and 41 references (Author abstract modified)