Suchergebnisse

A basic problem encountered by investigations of prenatal cocaine effects has been the valid identification and quantification of exposure. Based on a combination of sources: (a) medical record review, (b) maternal urine toxicology screen, (c) meconium analysis, and (d) maternal postpartum interview, drug exposure status of 415 infants was established. Using this combination as a benchmark, maternal postpartum interview was found most sensitive, while medical record review was slightly less accurate. Meconium analysis and urine screens both demonstrated miss rates greater than the interview or record review methods. Meconium analysis and postpartum interview, however, each detected cases of cocaine exposure that the other had missed. Correlations between the amount of cocaine found in meconium and in maternal report indicated that the cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine was the best biological marker. Quantifying heavy versus light exposure required a combination of both meconium analysis and maternal postpartum interview techniques.

While there is growing consensus that the 'war on drugs' has failed to decrease drug consumption in the Global North, we know much less about how drug production has impacted communities of the Global South. This is particularly true for the cultivation of coca leaf in Colombia, which is increasingly planted in isolated rural areas such as national parks and in the collectively titled lands of ethnic communities (indigenous and Afro-descendant) where it is both difficult to detect and to eradicate. This article explains how Afro-descendant communities in Colombia have resisted both coca cultivation and a controversial war on drugs strategy to eliminate coca –aerial eradication – through a framework of ecological difference. It also explores why political ecologists can be important allies in this struggle and in the greater context of socio-environmental justice for rural communities in the Global South. Key Words: rural, ethnic, difference, war, coca, Colombia

While there is growing consensus that the 'war on drugs' has failed to decrease drug consumption in the Global North, we know much less about how drug production has impacted communities of the Global South. This is particularly true for the cultivation of coca leaf in Colombia, which is increasingly planted in isolated rural areas such as national parks and in the collectively titled lands of ethnic communities (indigenous and Afro-descendant) where it is both difficult to detect and to eradicate. This article explains how Afro-descendant communities in Colombia have resisted both coca cultivation and a controversial war on drugs strategy to eliminate coca –aerial eradication – through a framework of ecological difference. It also explores why political ecologists can be important allies in this struggle and in the greater context of socio-environmental justice for rural communities in the Global South. Key Words: rural, ethnic, difference, war, coca, Colombia