Agricultural Settlement and Land Use in Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 559

FIGURE 11.11 A Karen farmer inspects an opium poppy ( Papaver somniferum ), Tanen Range, northw-
est Thailand. (Photo by S. F. Cunha.)
Similarly, marijuana ( Cannabis sativa ) from the highlands of Central and West Africa
is smoked locally, but much of the crop makes its way into Europe as concentrated
hashish. United States antidrug operations often target these isolated and mountainous
source regions, especially Thailand and Colombia. Such efforts draw a mixed reaction
from mountain farmers. Even though these crops are universally illegal in their refined
state, governments rarely prosecute highlanders for traditional consumption. In this
respect, they fill the social niche that legal alcohol and cigarettes do elsewhere. In
1992, Bolivian President Paz Zamora clarified the relationship between local use and
largely urban-industrialized use of the coca leaf by stating that “coca is an Andean tra-
dition while cocaine is a Western habit” (Tribune de Geneve 1992). Although narcotic
crops also thrive in lowland environments, seclusion and skeletal law enforcement make
mountains an attractive place to locate. Growing drug crops for export ultimately brings
negative consequences for mountain farmers. These include severe deforestation, soil