COCA SUBSTITIJTION IN BOLIVIAN AGRICULTURE: POLITICAL ECONOMY OR EXPEDIENCY?

Morris D. Whitaker and Clovis Villegas

No 283721, 1977 AAEA-WAEA Joint Meeting, July 31-August 3, San Diego, California from American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association)

Abstract: In recent years, illegal consumption of cocaine in the United States has increased dramatically from levels which have been described as" ... insignificant ... " in the early 1960s (DCDATF, p. 24). Cocaine is produced from the leaf of the coca plant which is native to the subtropical river valleys of the eastern slopes of the Andes, and which has been adapted to their piedmont. It ranges from Colombia on the north through Bolivia on the south, although Bolivia and Peru are the most important producers. Coca leaf is harvested from three to four times a year depending on its location and provides a steady flow of income relative to alternative crops which are harvested annually. Historically, most coca leaf has been consumed by chewing or as a medicinal tea with small quantities made into cocaine under government license.

Keywords: Crop; Production/Industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14
Date: 1977-07
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/283721/files/19-00105AAEA_0686.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea77:283721

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.283721

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 1977 AAEA-WAEA Joint Meeting, July 31-August 3, San Diego, California from American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().