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Newsbrief:
Peruvian
Coca
on
Rise
as
Country
Revamps
Coca
Eradication
Effort
10/4/02
Despite increasing acreage
devoted to the crop in the last two years, Peru's coca eradication program
came to a screeching halt earlier this summer in the face of peasant protests
(http://www.drcnet.org/wol/249.html#perucoca).
But this week Peruvian drug czar Nils Ericsson announced that a revised
eradication program was now underway. Ericsson told reporters in
Lima on Tuesday that Peru and the US had signed a September 12 agreement
to streamline alternative development programs and that the US had agreed
to provide $300 million for the program over the next five years.
Under the new voluntary eradication
program, launched last week, farmers would be paid $15 per day to uproot
their coca crops. It would take about 10 days for a farmer to clear
a 2.5 acre field, Ericsson said. The peasant farmers would then be
guaranteed an income for the next six months. "They're going to have
an income deriving from their job in works that favor the community --
road construction, sanitation works, school building," Ericsson added.
But eradication cannot keep
up with cultivation as peasants rocked by low prices for commodities like
coffee and fruit turn back to coca, their most reliable cash crop.
The area under cultivation last year was somewhere between 84,000 acres
(US figure), 115,000 acres (UN figure), and 150,000 acres, according to
some Peruvian drug experts. Ericsson told reporters a "conservative
estimate" would be about 125,000 acres under cultivation this year.
Ericsson said he expects Peru to eradicate about 17,000 acres this year,
or less than one-seventh of the crop.
-- END --
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Issue #257, 10/4/02
DEA to California Medical Marijuana Patients: Drop Dead | Federal Parole Bill Orphaned with Death of Sole Sponsor -- Activists, Prisoners Look to Other Bills, Other Sponsors | Canadian Government Announces Parliament to Consider Marijuana Decriminalization -- US Worries, Blusters | Widely Hyped Ecstasy Study Full of Holes, Critics Say | In Brazil, "Parallel Power" of the Narcos Flexes Muscle on Eve of Elections | Montana Drug Policy Task Force Calls for More Treatment and Prevention, War on Meth | The November Coalition Hits the Road: Journey for Justice Aims to Mobilize Support for Freeing Drug War Prisoners | Newsbrief: Peruvian Coca on Rise as Country Revamps Coca Eradication Effort | Uribe Wants to Recriminalize Drug Possession in Colombia | Newsbrief: California Governor Vetoes Bill Allowing Syringe Sales, Vetoed Industrial Hemp Study Earlier | Newsbrief: California Town to Pay $3 Million, Apologize for Drug Raid Death | Newsbrief: And the Killing Continues | Newsbrief: Nevada -- The Survey Says... Legalize It! | Newsbrief: University of Missouri SSDP, NORML in Marijuana Decriminalization Petition Drive | Newsbrief: US Explores Drugging Rioters | Newsbrief: Drug Warrior Maginnis Leaves Family Research Council | Newsbrief: DPA Campaign Provides Tools to Fight School Drug Testing | Calling on Students to Raise Your Voices for Repeal of the HEA Drug Provision | Do You Read The Week Online? | Action Alerts: Rave Bill, Medical Marijuana, Higher Education Act Drug Provision | The Reformer's Calendar
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