Cocaine

ISBN-13: 9780753506271 / Angielski

Dominic Streatfeild

Opis

On 16 May 1499 Amerigo Vespucci set sail for the New World. Three months later, having navigated his way along the coastline of Brazil, he was washed up on an idyllic desert island 15 leagues from the mainland. There he was appalled to discover a tribe of hideous Indians like beasts, their mouths stuffed full of leaves. The island was Santa Margarita; the leaves were coca; the source of the drug was cocaine. Five hundred years on the effects of his discovery are still felt. In 1999 South America produced 613,400 tones of coca, with a potential yeild of 765 tons of cocaine. Estimating (conservatively) a price of $20,000 per kilo, that would be worth around $15,300,000,000. Wholesale.