Bolivia

Bolivia, located in central South America, has a population of approximately 9.7 million people and borders Peru and Chile to the west, Argentina and Paraguay to the south, and Brazil to the north and east. Although Bolivia gained independence from Spain in 1825, political unrest and nearly 200 coups and countercoups have marred its history. Democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and illegal drug production pose serious challenges. In December 2005, Evo Morales of the Movement Toward Socialism party was elected president by the widest margin of any leader since the restoration of civilian rule in 1982.

As with most nations, cannabis is the most widely used illegal drug in Bolivia. Based on United Nations (UN) figures, approximately 4 percent of population between the ages of 12 and 65 use cannabis annually. The use of other illicit drugs, including opiates and amphetamine-type stimulants, is not widespread in Bolivia. For example, less than 1 percent of the Bolivian population uses cocaine. However, Bolivia is a major producing nation of cocaine, and the cocaine industry is central to Bolivian society and the economy.

Bolivia is currently the world's third largest producer of coca leaves. Because of its location Bolivia serves as smuggling route for processed Peruvian and Colombian cocaine that is transited through or shipped to markets in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Europe, and the United States.

The variant of Erythroxylum coca, E. coca var. coca, is the species of coca that is grown in Bolivia. Bolivian coca grows at altitudes between 4,800 and 1,600 feet. The Yungas and the Chapare are the main areas where coca is grown. Bolivia's Aymara and Quechua Indians use coca for religious, medicinal, and sustenance purposes. In the past, farmers and miners in Bolivia received their pay in the form of coca leaves.

In 1975 the Cabinet Committee on International Narcotics Control (replaced in 1977 by the Bureau of International Narcotics Matters), applied economic pressure on Bolivia that forced it to sign the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotics. To reduce illicit production, an experimental coca substitution program directed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) began. The United States pledged $95 million for the program, but none of the alternative crops such as sugar, coffee, cotton, and citrus offered the price stability that coca did. In 1977 Bolivia forbade the cultivation of new plots of coca. However, political, social, and economic difficulties such as the 1975 crash in sugar and cotton prices and the subsequent collapse of tin and natural gas prices in 1978 led to an increase in coca production.