Coca plant cultivation in Colombia tripled from 2013 to 2016, reversing a decades-long trend
A new UN report indicates that global cocaine production has reversed its long downwards trend since 2000, mostly due to increased government crackdowns. Recent methods of production, however, have enabled growers to skirt government efforts of decreasing production, and the amount produced has been rising since 2013. Colombia currently contributed around 68% of all land used to grow the coca plant around the world, a share that appears to be growing, even as markets shift to Asian and North African countries in response to massive seizures in North America and Europe.