Caring for coca, living with chemicals: Towards ecological harm reduction.

Autor: Rhodes T; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. Electronic address: tim.rhodes@lshtm.ac.uk., Ordoñez LS; Instituto de Estudios Politicos y Relaciones Internacionales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia., Acero C; Instituto de Estudios Politicos y Relaciones Internacionales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia., Harris M; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK., Holland A; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK., Sanín FG; Instituto de Estudios Politicos y Relaciones Internacionales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The International journal on drug policy [Int J Drug Policy] 2023 Oct; Vol. 120, pp. 104179. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Aug 31.
DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2023.104179
Abstrakt: In this paper, we show how the materialisation of chemical harms linked to the cultivation of coca and its processing into coca paste reside in a wider politics of structural violence which is also situated ecologically. Drawing on the qualitative interview accounts of coca farmers in Putumayo, Colombia, we attend to practices of care in the field and in the laboratory. We look first at chemicals used in coca's cultivation (herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides), and second at chemicals (such as sulphuric acid, sodium carbonate, magnesium permanganate) used in the processing of coca leaf into paste (before the paste is sold on for refinement into cocaine). Our analysis highlights the tensions which inevitably arise in the balance and multiplicities of care - for crops, livelihood, and environment. We trace how farmers' narratives of the neutralisation of chemical risks habituate chemical harms as mundane, even uneventful, in an economic imperative to 'carry on as normal' in the coca economy. We emphasise health and harm as matters of care which not only affect humans but living environments. Accounts of 'risk environment' can give insufficient attention to Nature, and this leads us to consider 'ecological harm reduction'.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
(Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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