Cocaine production increases destruction of Colombia’s rainforests

Scientists from Stony Brook University are reporting new evidence that cultivating coca bushes, the source of cocaine, is speeding up destruction of rainforests in Colombia and threatening the region´s “hotspots” of plant and animal diversity. The findings, which they say underscore the need for establishing larger protected areas to help preserve biodiversity, appear in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology in an article entitled Forests and Drugs: Coca-Driven Deforestation in Tropical Biodiversity Hotspots