Drugs have been a big issue for years, taking lives with their side effects. All over the world it is advertised what drugs do to your body and how they affect you. Everywhere you see cigarettes, cocaine, marijuana, etc on billboards, advertising what the drug does to affect your lungs or your brain. Nowhere is it advertised about who else it affects. It was never thought of what the drug plantations are doing to innocent people trying to live their lives. Illegal coca plantations in Colombia have taken over the home of the Nukak Tribe, leaving them vulnerable and homeless. The Nukak Tribe faces most problems due to Colombian drug-lords taking over their land and the Nukak can only relocate until the Government gets rid of the drug-lords.
The Nukaks have been around for decades, living on, innocently, in their acres of the forest. They live in the east part of Colombia, near Mitu. They face numerous threats, endangering their tribe more and more by the day. Rebellious hijacks have prevented them from receiving the medical aid they need to survive. On top of lack of medicines, they have been on the move for the past 15 years due to colonists growing coca for cocaine trade. Constantly fleeing has led them to the wrong places, tying them up with Colombia’s civil war going on. Murders, threats, kidnappings, and food blockades have broken down the tribe, leaving them quaking with fear in a foreign place. 120 Nukak members walked out of the forest, naked, in fear of the colonists, marching into San Jose del Guaviare. They don’t own anything valuable to them, they have left all of their history behind. They’re scraping off what little of their culture is left in their tribe, as they move around the Colombian forests, seeking for new homes.
The coca plantations have remained stable in the Nukak’s original area of the forest due to a weak Government. In Colombia, it is legal to own a gram of cocaine with either a prescription or being of the age that it is legal. Although cocaine is partially legal in Colombia, producing coca plantations and cocaine factories is illegal according to the Colombian Law 30 of 1986. Cocaine trade and selling has been ruled off as illegal in the country, leaving the coca plantations with no right to take the land of the Nukaks. The Government of Colombia cannot enforce it’s own rules in order to rule out the plantations due to the location of the plantations. The plantations are mainly based in areas where the coca plant is commonly found and easily grown. However, the areas are quite remote and the Colombian state has a lack of control over what goes on in the area.
What drives the cocaine projects is the amount of cocaine bought and traded to the U.S.A. Cocaine has become very big in the U.S. It is estimated that in 2008 there were 1.9 million cocaine users. About 1.5% of young adults take cocaine in the States, aiding the cocaine industry in Colombia with profit. Since Colombia is one of the world’s biggest cocaine distributors, it would deprive the ⅓ of the world of their cocaine if it was stopped. The United States has become Colombia’s biggest buyer, right next to Europe. With the business going so well, it keeps the coca plantations alive and running, still running out the Nukaks. However, a very small percentage of cocaine users understand what consequences their drug abuse brings to innocent lives, such as the Nukaks. This doesn’t mean that advertising what making cocaine does to tribal people will treat the addiction that users have. Just exposing the slightest bit of advertisement could help though. It could possibly alert someone who has a good heart, as well as a great deal of money, and a dream to bring the Nukaks home.
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Having the United States as Colombia’s biggest cocaine buyer definitely does not prevent the drug lords to shut down their factories. Also, Colombia, being one of the world’s largest cocaine dealing countries, needs coca plantations to maintain their cocaine selling ranking. Some of the largest drug barons come from Colombia, being some of the most dangerous, wealthy and powerful mean in the world. The cocaine industry brings in a lot of profit since the area that they have based their plantations in produces coca already. Each year billions of dollars are spent on buying cocaine from Colombia. Making 1 gram wouldn’t cost more than a couple of dollars, although then it is sold for over 100 dollars per gram in the U.S. Since cocaine brings a great deal of income, it would be difficult to convince drug lords to join another business that makes the same amount of money. Also, it keeps them from ever shutting the plantations down and allowing the Nukaks to return to their rightful home.
The Nukaks were forced out of their homes in order to allow the colombian drug lords to grow coca for their businesses. In order to grow all the coca that they require for their high amount of cocaine production they make, the cut down the forest upon which the Nukaks had build their lives upon. Their home was deep in the forest, shut away from most other civilizations. Due to the circumstances, the tribes spend only a few days in one place. Having them migrate around opens them up to different dangers with Guerrilla Insurgencies. It left them short of land, vulnerable, having nowhere to belong to, and prone to various new diseases. The new diseases have wiped out a great deal of the Nukak tribe since they struggle to receive medical aid after rebel hijacks against the tribe. The new diseases they are exposed to all around the forest could potentially wipe out the tribe since they haven’t had any experience with them before. The sicknesses are much like everything else in their surroundings, everything is new to the Nukak tribe. Leaving them to start over on learning all about their ‘homeland’ and making them throw away all their knowledge of their previous home.
The Nukak’s biggest problem is the drug manufacturing on their home land where they are based. The past years have been difficult for the tribe, whilst moving from location to location, making them vulnerable. In order to prevent the extinction of the Nukak Tribe, they would need to relocate to a land where they can build up their own lives again. Obviously, they could not just move to any part of the rainforest due to different owners and different plantations throughout the forest. The Government would need to place them in a land that they can temporarily call their own, until the coca plantation has been run out of the Nukak's original location. In order to run out the coca plantation the Government could offer land to all of the farmers, confirming that they will have a higher pay than they receive whilst planting coca. The farmers could be offered cocoa, coffee bean, etc. plantations, guaranteeing an income for them.
Giving the farmers with different work and a higher pay would get them to quit working at the coca plantation business. Leaving the coca plantation would shut it down due to the lack of workers. However, the drug lords selling the coca and paying the farmers have a great deal of money. They withhold enough money to buy in other farmers to work at their plantations. Within the time that they buy in more farmers and transport them to their plantations, the government could have set up protection services around the tribe’s home area, protecting it from any unwanted intruders. Although the Nukaks would have been relocated and their land would have been fought back for, the process of taking back their original location would take years. This leaves the Nukaks best solution to be to relocate and try to settle down in a new environment that they could potentially adjust to.
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