---
category: Country
summary: Peru was the South American country where smoking coca paste originated in
  the 1970s, a practice that preceded and foreshadowed the crack cocaine epidemic
  in the United States.
tags:
- geography
- south-america
- contra-war
---

Peru was the [South America](/places/south-america/)n country where smoking coca paste originated in the 1970s, a practice that preceded and foreshadowed the [crack cocaine](/concepts/crack-cocaine/) epidemic in the [United States](/places/united-states/). Along with [Bolivia](/places/bolivia/), Peru was part of the Andean cocaine production zone that supplied the trafficking networks connected to the [Contra](/organizations/contras/) 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](/places/lima/)'s fashionable neighborhoods in 1974 and spread to other major Peruvian cities and then to [Ecuador](/places/ecuador/) and Bolivia. The Peruvian experience demonstrated the addictive potential of smokable cocaine forms years before crack appeared in American cities. The [cocaine](/concepts/cocaine/) flowing through Contra-connected networks originated in this Andean production zone before being refined and shipped north.[^2]

[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 3.
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 3.