ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some central policy issues and considerations about the role of economic development in relation to international cocaine trafficking and drug policy with particular attention to Peru and Bolivia. It focuses on economic development and drug trafficking issues in the nations of Peru and Bolivia. The chapter provides some considerations on economic development issues which are often ignored in the debates over US drug policy. It discusses some alternative policies and institutional arrangements to address the developmental needs and socio-economic interests of the peasantries in Peru and Bolivia. The chapter also presents a case study of effective grassroots development with cocoa bean production in a non-traditional coca growing area of Bolivia. It focuses on the patterns of rural modernization and economic change in the Andean countries in decades. The Peruvian state policy provided support to the modernization and expansion of coastal commercial farms in lieu of peasant agriculture.
