In its 2023 World Drug Report released on Monday, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime – UNODC – documented record coca cultivation and production throughout 2021.

Colombia produces the majority of cocaine in the world – up to 80 percent according to some estimates. The Colombian government signed a “peace agreement” with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 2016, which granted seats to the terrorist group in the Colombian Congress, and limited law enforcement activities against coca production. Since then, cocaine production has soared. UNODC reported on Monday that the cocaine production in 2021, which is the year covered by the 2023 report was up year-over-year for the seventh consecutive year. The FARC began peace talks in 2014.

International observers are concerned that the production of cocaine in Colombia could increase even more since Gustavo Petro became president last year. Former Marxist M-19 terrorist rebel Petro has openly defended the drug cocaine, calling it a relatively harmless substance and less harmful to mankind than fossil fuels. Petro, a former member of the Marxist M-19 terrorist guerrilla, has openly defended cocaine as a relatively safe drug and deemed it less dangerous to humanity than fossil fuels.

In honor of World Drug Day, the UNODC released its report Monday. It called for “respect” and “empathy” toward drug users.

The report for 2021 shows that “on the supply side,” coca bush cultivation accounted for 315,500 hectares in 2021. This is a significant increase over 2020. Total cocaine production was 2,304 tons. It was the seventh consecutive increase year-over-year. Both are record highs.

The report stated that “the world is experiencing a long-term surge in supply and demand for cocaine. This is being felt around the globe” and is likely to spur development of new markets outside the traditional confines.

UNODC warns that drug traffickers have developed “more efficient supply chain” by cooperating better across continents. The coca leaf used to make cocaine is indigenous to South America, and cocaine is the most popular drug there. However, the UNODC has documented a significant increase in cocaine trafficking into Western and Central Europe.

The United Nations has expressed concern about the Amazon Basin region, which includes Brazil, Peru Bolivia and Colombia. Growing coca and producing Cocaine out of sight from authorities is fueling environmental destruction.

The report noted that it takes 300 litres or more of gasoline to make 1 kilogram of cocaine. “The legacy impacts range from water pollution to land degradation, with implications for animal and human health.”

The report stated that “the direct impact of coca on deforestation was minimal, but indirectly it could act as a catalyst for deforestation. Although the deforestation seen in the Amazon Basin has been largely driven other factors.” “‘Narco-deforestation’ – the laundering of drug trafficking profits into land speculation, the agricultural sector, cattle ranching and related infrastructure – is posing a growing danger to the world’s largest rainforest.”

The report noted that cocaine production and trafficking were on the rise, pointing out that this was particularly true in four Colombian departments or regions: Caqueta (in Colombia), Guaviare (in Colombia), Meta (in Colombia), Putumayo, and Vichada. The FARC rehabilitated, divided between its “legitimate faction” in Congress and still-active guerrilla fighters (often incorrectly referred to as “dissidents”) was largely responsible for the expansion of this trade. According to the United Nations (UN), FARC terrorists, and other drug traffickers, “subcontract lumber companies and smugglers to conceal drugs in boat hulls and transport them out of ports.”
According to the United Nations, Colombian cocaine is expected to reach 64 countries by 2021.

The U.N.’s 2022 World Drug Report differs significantly from the Monday edition in that it did not show a significant rise in the amount land used by drug traffickers to grow cocaine in 2020. This report concluded that the significant increase in coca production was due to more efficient crop land development. The 2022 report did note a significant increase of production and cultivation following the FARC agreement.

The report stated that “the area under coca plantation in Colombia increased by more than three times during the peace negotiations with FARC EP, and then decreased once the peace agreement in November 2016 was signed.” In 2020, even though the area under coca cultivation decreased by 9 percent compared to the previous year’s production, Colombian cocaine production increased by 8 percent to 1,228 tonnes, due to higher yields and laboratory efficiency rates.

Petro’s election as president a year earlier, making him the first leftist in Colombian history, has fueled fears of an even greater cocaine boom. Petro’s defense of cocaine in international forums has fueled these fears. Petro, in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, said that cocaine causes only “minimal deaths”. He also condemned efforts to eradicate this drug.

“To destroy coca plants, they release poisons en masse. glyphosate runs through the water. Their growers are arrested and imprisoned. “For destroying or possessing coca leaves, a thousand Latin Americans are killed and two million Afro-Americans in North America are imprisoned,” he raged. “Destroy the Plant that Kills,” they cry out from the North [the United States]. But the plant is only one of the millions who perish when they unleash the fire on the jungle.

He asked, “Which is more poisonous to humanity: coal, oil, or cocaine?” “The opinion [of those in] power has dictated that cocaine is poisonous and must be punished, even if only a few deaths are caused by its overdose and many more by the mixtures it creates as a result from its clandestine status.” Instead, oil and coal must be protected even if they can wipe out all of mankind.

Before Petro’s U.N. address, a group led by Senator Gustavo Bolivar of Petro’s Humane Colombia Party signed a letter in July urging the Colombian government to decriminalize drugs, including cocaine. Bolivar announced that he would “regulate adult and medical use of coca leaves, mushrooms and their derivatives.” Bolivar did not mention the highly dangerous derivatives produced by poppy plants, such as heroin and fentanyl.

Luis Carlos Reyes is the director of Colombia’s National Directorate of Taxes and Customs, under Petro. He called for the legalization of coca in an October tweet that stated, “Time to legalize and taxes.”