19 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
19 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "Country"
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tags:
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- geography
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- south-america
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- contra-war
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summary: Peru was the South American country where smoking coca paste originated in the 1970s, a practice that preceded and foreshadowed the crack cocaine epidemic in the United States.
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---
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Peru was the [[South America]]n country where smoking coca paste originated in the 1970s, a practice that preceded and foreshadowed the [[Crack Cocaine|crack cocaine]] epidemic in the [[United States]]. Along with [[Bolivia]], Peru was part of the Andean cocaine production zone that supplied the trafficking networks connected to the [[Contras|Contra]] war.[^1]
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### Origins of Cocaine Smoking
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In Peru and Bolivia, users began smoking coca paste (the intermediate product in cocaine refining) in the mid-1970s. Peruvian police psychiatrist Raul Jeri documented a cocaine "epidemic" that swept through [[Lima]]'s fashionable neighborhoods in 1974 and spread to other major Peruvian cities and then to [[Ecuador]] and Bolivia. The Peruvian experience demonstrated the addictive potential of smokable cocaine forms years before crack appeared in American cities. The [[cocaine]] flowing through Contra-connected networks originated in this Andean production zone before being refined and shipped north.[^2]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 3.
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[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 3.
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