The US and Peru’s War on Drugs: The New King of Coke (Part 5)

The United Nations announced in 2013 that Peru has overtaken Colombia as the world’s top producer of coca, the raw plant material used to manufacture cocaine. For the past two decades, Colombia has been virtually synonymous with cocaine. Now that Peru has become the global epicenter of cocaine production, the Andean nation runs the risk of becoming the world’s next great narco state. The Peruvian government is trying to crack down on the problem by ramping up eradication of coca plants, and devoting military and police resources to interdiction efforts. Despite the response — and a hefty amount of foreign aid devoted to combatting cocaine production — Peruvian coke is being consumed in the nightclubs of Lima and in cities around the world like never before. VICE News travels to Peru to learn more about the government’s battle plan against cocaine, and to see how nearly every aspect of Peruvian society is caught up in the fight. We witness how the fine, white powder has forced an entire nation to the brink in the global war on drugs. In the final part of the five-part series, VICE News correspondent Kaj Larsen travels to Washington, DC, where opponents of the US government’s 40-year-old war on drugs are raising their voices and advocating for policy change, while proponents invoke the rhetoric of Nixon, hoping that Peru’s war on drugs will be ended by the flow of cash and boots on the ground resources they attribute to ending Colombia’s drug war. Watch Part 1 – http://bit.ly/1wvSe3S Watch Part 2 – http://bit.ly/166TbUR Watch Part 3 – http://bit.ly/1qxlYL0 Watch Part 4 – http://bit.ly/1BBv1yy Read “‘Air Cocaine’: Trial Begins for Frenchmen Charged With Smuggling Drugs From the Dominican Republic” – http://bit.ly/1BqeT01 Read “The Opium and Heroin Business Is Booming in Southeast Asia’s ‘Golden Triangle'” – http://bit.ly/1B2tzCe Read “A Law Designed to Target Coke Lords Is Screwing Over Legal Pot Companies” – http://bit.ly/1ylCr6x Subscribe to VICE News here: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE-News Check out the VICE News beta for more: http://vicenews.com Follow VICE News here: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicenews Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicenews Tumblr: http://vicenews.tumblr.com/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/vicenews

From: VICE News