Coletta A. Youngers
Thursday, October 2, 2014 - 12:25
Forced eradication is a deeply entrenched aspect of U.S. international drug control policy. It has the appeal of seeming “tough” and straightforward — if we wipe out drugs at the “source,” they won’t make it to our shores — and it has attained enormous political and bureaucratic inertia. But after nearly three decades, the effort to eliminate drugs at the point of production, chiefly through forced crop eradication, has failed.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 - 06:45
Peruvian President Ollanta Humala fired Peru’s top drug official, Carmen Macias, replacing her with a longtime confidant, former Defense Minister Luis Alberto Otarola. Macias’ abrupt removal came just before the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) announced that Peru’s net coca cultivation declined by 17.5 percent in 2013.
Friday, January 10, 2014 - 00:00
Between 2006 and 2011, the female prison population in Latin America almost doubled
Friday, December 6, 2013 - 00:00
The incident illustrates the complex political waters that the government of Bolivian President Evo Morales has to navigate in meeting the demands of its coca grower base while reducing coca cultivated for illicit markets.
Thursday, December 5, 2013 - 00:00
The Obama administration should rethink its stated opposition to Bolivia's coca control efforts and recognize that the solution to the problems caused by drug use in the United States cannot be found in Bolivia, but only within our own borders.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - 00:00
Regardless of the criticisms one might have of U.S. policy toward Bolivia or Bolivia's policy toward the United States, it is in the interests of both countries-as each country has expressed at different times in the past-to maintain open channels.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - 00:00
Last week at the UN, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico united in bringing this regional debate to the General Assembly meeting, calling for consideration of alternative approaches to the drug issue.
Friday, May 14, 2010 - 00:00
This brief explains why and how the Ecuadorian government arrived at its decision to undertake significant drug law reform.