On January 9, 2020, a media outlet released a very revealing documentary about cocaine's effect on Colombia. Charlet Duboc, a correspondent, joined a team of military officers in their quest to uproot and eradicate the infamous coca plants.

In Tumaco, Narino, a vast area of land is covered with nothing but coca plants, making it the largest concentration of coca crops across in the world.

The anti-narcotics division had been storming and uprooting the coca farms for a decade. However, the end of coca production is still not in sight. With poverty gripping on local farmers and residents, most turn to coca cultivation, tripling output over the last five years.

The Process

Cocaine is a highly addictive and illegal drug made from a plant native to South America. According to the DEA, Colombia produces the most number of cocaine per year, with Peru and other Latin American countries trailing behind.

The process of making cocaine involves three main steps, making it a labor-intensive process. Coca farmers start by harvesting the leaves of the crops, which are then soaked in gasoline. After much of the liquid has been drained, the coca base is dried, dissolved in a solvent, and is dried into bricks.

The drug sold off the street is rarely in its purest form. Cocaine makers typically add in at least one foreign substance to increase profits.

In Colombia, coca farms were initially operating without any government presence. When the state began sending forces, they brought with them repressive tactics such as eradication and fumigation. Many, especially those along the Inirida River and other outlying areas, steadily lose their only source of income.

Life in Cocaine

A large number of Colombian farmers and families depend on coca production for their daily needs.

The neighborhoods located along the river were once thriving fishing villages. However, after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) incentivized coca cultivation, most turned to farm the illegal drug as a more sustainable and stable source of income.

Coca farmers often create the paste in their own kitchens. Most coca workers live in areas where paper money and coins equate to nothing. In impoverished regions, coca paste has largely become their currency---commodities such as a bar of soap cost ten grams of cocaine.

Against the Odds

With help from the Colombian authorities, many coca farmers were given seeds, incentives, and technology needed to grow pineapple, peppercorn, and cacao. Others were taught how to raise livestock like pigs and cows.

Coca farmers are asked to sever ties with the guerillas who buy the illicit drug. Workers who have had their crops substituted travel to nearby towns and cities to sell their products. Some who've signed up for the program see the news crops as profitable.

Others disagree.

The crop substitution program has been around for the past two decades. Many of the projects were badly designed and underfunded, causing farmers to turn to coca production once again.

Part of the reason lies in the remoteness of the zones where coca farmers live. They are in a very isolated part of the country where there are no roads, and the primary means of transportation are boats. They also do not have access to technology, electricity, and the internet.

The Colombian government also fails to impose a guaranteed minimum price for legal products, leaving farmers to fend for themselves.

Criminal bands also factor into the failing program. On paper, authorities claim more than 75,000 farmers signed on the substitution program. In reality, some of these "farmers" are actors from criminal bands waiting to take over territories previously dominated by FARC to expand their drug operations.

In some areas, the criminal groups, also known as BACRIM, prevent local coca farmers from transitioning to other produce. Many families linked to the government's program received threats and intimidation from the rebels.

National security forces cannot keep the illegal armed groups from moving into spaces previously occupied by coca farmers. Offered with just a temporary financial subsidy, many workers still fall back to cocaine production to curb hunger and poverty.

Agorabardo Burdos, who now grows three acres of pepper, said the demand for the product has fallen since more people prefer to buy the cheaper alternative from Ecuador.

"Coca meant less work and more money," he said. "With pepper, we are just surviving."

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