18 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
18 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "City"
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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: Lima, the capital of Peru, was where the first documented epidemic of cocaine paste smoking occurred in the 1970s, foreshadowing the crack epidemic that would hit the United States.
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---
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Lima, the capital of [[Peru]], was where the first documented epidemic of cocaine paste smoking occurred in the 1970s, foreshadowing the [[Crack Cocaine|crack]] epidemic that would later hit the [[United States]]. A Peruvian police psychiatrist documented a cocaine "epidemic" that swept through Lima's fashionable neighborhoods in 1974, demonstrating the addictive potential of smokable cocaine forms.[^1]
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### The Andean Connection
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The [[Cocaine]] that flowed through Contra-connected trafficking networks originated in the Andean production zone that included Peru, [[Bolivia]], and [[Colombia]]. The early epidemic in Lima served as a warning that went unheeded when cheap cocaine began flooding into American inner cities through networks like the one run by [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] and [[Norwin Meneses|Meneses]]. The Peruvian experience with coca paste smoking in Lima demonstrated the destructive potential of smokable cocaine years before crack devastated [[South Central Los Angeles|South Central L.A.]].[^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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