COCA CULTIVATIONS IN AFRICA TOO

The war against drugs is starting to reveal some of the perverse aspects which not even the most critical among antiprohibitionists could have foreseen. For example, the experts of the anti-drug war have been able to prove that the counter-move devised by the Colombian drug barons, a counter-move which is already in progress, simply consists in no longer exporting cocaine, but entire coca plantations to Southern Africa. Agronomists agree in stating that the conditions for the cultivation of coca are almost identical to those necessary for the cultivation of coffee. It is not difficult to imagine the enormous potential that can still be exploited there. This new strategy devised by the Colombian drug traffickers has a double advantage: on the one hand it contrasts the American offensive focused exclusively on coca plantations and cocaine manufacturing laboratories in the countries of the Andes (Peru, Bolivia and Colombia), and on the other hand it ensures a more effective and less expensive shipping from Afri

ca to Europe.

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CARTESIAN LOGIC

Following the recent visit of Colombian President Barco in Europe, the Commission of the European Communities has recently diffused its own plan to fight drugs in Colombia. This programme provides for a series of aids for the production and the export toward the European Community of Colombia's other agricultural produce, such as flowers, coffee and tobacco.

It was with the uttermost seriousness that the European authorities announced the launching of this programme, which consists in fighting against the production of a plant which can serve as the basis for the production of drugs by supporting the production and the import in the European Community of other psychotropic substances such as tobacco and coffee.