Peru was the [[South America]]n country where smoking coca paste originated in the 1970s, a practice that preceded and foreshadowed the [[Crack Cocaine|crack cocaine]] epidemic in the [[United States]]. Along with [[Bolivia]], Peru was part of the Andean cocaine production zone that supplied the trafficking networks connected to the [[Contras|Contra]] war.[^1] ### Origins of Cocaine Smoking In Peru and Bolivia, users began smoking coca paste (the intermediate product in cocaine refining) in the mid-1970s. Peruvian police psychiatrist Raul Jeri documented a cocaine "epidemic" that swept through [[Lima]]'s fashionable neighborhoods in 1974 and spread to other major Peruvian cities and then to [[Ecuador]] and Bolivia. The Peruvian experience demonstrated the addictive potential of smokable cocaine forms years before crack appeared in American cities. The [[cocaine]] flowing through Contra-connected networks originated in this Andean production zone before being refined and shipped north.[^2] ### Footnotes [^1]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Ch. 3. [^2]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Ch. 3.