ENVIRONMENTAL COST OF COCAINE

It is important to recognise that the instruments used by Colombia in
fighting the illegal drugs trade comply with international
conventions and treaties (Colombia's desert war, 12 March).

Aside from the devastating social consequences, and financing
violence and the illegal terrorist groups in Colombia, the
cultivation of drugs is also having a disastrous effect on our
environment. An estimated 200,000 hectares of Colombian natural
forest are destroyed every year, mainly due to the plantation of coca
for the production of cocaine. The principal cause of air pollution
in the Colombian jungle is the burning of forest to make way for
coca. The production of 1kg of coca paste generates 600kg of trash
and contaminates 200 litres of water. Cocaine labs use thousands of
gallons of hot water, which is then dumped into rivers, causing
temperature changes that can destroy aquatic ecosystems. For each
hectare of coca planted, three are slashed and burned. One hectare of
coca produces 7.4kg of cocaine per year. Thus, the consumption of 1
gram of cocaine implies the destruction of 4 sq metres of Colombian forest.

In 2005 the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission of the
Organisation of American States commissioned a study to "conduct a
science-based risk assessment of the human health and environmental
effects or the use of glyphosate for the control of the illicit
crops, coca and poppy, in Colombia". This report found no causality
between fumigation and harm to the environment and concluded that
"glyphosate and Cosmo-Flux as used in the eradication programme in
Colombia did not present a significant risk to human health".

Noemi Sanin Posada

Colombian ambassador, London