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Where it all begins: Colombia's peasant farmers fuel Pacific drug trade

The wave of drugs arriving in countries like Fiji starts in the jungles of South America where ‘coca is everything’

The cocaine market is booming in Australia and New Zealand, causing ripples throughout the Pacific region. But long before it is snorted in cities such as Sydney or Auckland, the drug is produced by peasant farmers in Colombia, where coca crop output is at record highs.

In 2017, around 171,000 hectares (423,000 acres) of the South American nation’s land was used to grow coca, the plant whose leaf is the base ingredient of cocaine – up 25,000 hectares (17%) on the year before, according to the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

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from World news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/31R7vOU
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