Peru

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. Along with Bolivia, Peru was part of the Andean cocaine production zone that supplied the trafficking networks connected to the 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