A report from a United Nations agency said the number of Colombia's lands with coca plants from which cocaine is made was at its highest level in 20 years last year.

According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 204,000 hectares or 500,000 acres of coca crops were grown in Colombia in 2021, which is 43% more than in 2020.

Al Jazeera reported that the agency said the amount of cocaine that could be made last year reached a new high of 1,400 tons, which is a 14% increase from 2020.

"This is the highest figure in our 22 years of monitoring," UNODC Andean and Southern Cone regional director Candice Welsh told reporters on Thursday.

Welsh asked Bogota to spend more on social programs and improve security for communities switching to legal crops. Cocaine is a highly addictive drug that is illegal in many countries.

Colombia has long been the world's top producer of it. The country has come under pressure to reduce production, particularly from the United States.

But the government is having difficulty getting farmers to stop growing illegal coca crops because of a lack of subsidies and other incentives. Many poor Colombians planting coca plants said they do not have any other choice.

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Colombia Cocaine: Coca Crops Threaten the Country's Biodiversity

The UNODC noted that the production of coca crops continues to put Colombia's biodiversity at risk, fueling deforestation. Roughly half of the coca crop plantations are in special land management zones, including forest reserves.

After a court decided that glyphosate, a widely used herbicide to get rid of crops, could cause cancer and pollute the environment, aerial spraying to remove the crops stopped in 2015, according to BBC.

President Gustavo Petro's predecessor Ivan Duque supported the U.S. war on drugs. Former President Donald Trump told Colombia in 2020 to resume aerial spraying.

However, during their meeting in Colombia earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Petro that they had "extensive common ground" on the coca problem.

"We strongly support the holistic approach the Petro administration is taking. On both the enforcement side but also on the comprehensive approach to the problem... I think that we're largely in sync," Blinken said.

Colombia Has Been Fighting Off Cocaine Production for Decades

Even though there have been laws against drugs for decades, Colombia is still the biggest producer of cocaine in the world. Gustavo Petro has proposed voluntary crop substitution schemes and drug regulations.

Along with getting more drug gang leaders arrested, the leftist president also wanted to increase social funding in production areas. Petro even considered granting amnesty to drug dealers who agreed to give up their business, DW reported.

The president thinks coca growers and pickers are victims of the current laws because thousands of them are in jail for drug trafficking while the state sprays pesticides on their land to remove illegal plantations.

"We had an increase in sown hectares and cocaine production that is without precedent in the history of the country," said Justice Minister Nestor Osuna.

Osuna went on to criticize the U.S., which is the biggest cocaine consumer in the world. He said the numbers clearly showed the "failure of the war on drugs." However, he noted that the legalization of cocaine in Colombia will not be considered for now.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

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