Weeds of peace
A drug-growing country experiments with medical marijuana
COLOMBIANS called it the bonanza marimbera (marijuana bonanza). In the 1970s and 1980s smokers in the United States were especially partial to Santa Marta Gold, a variety of cannabis grown on the slopes of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada. It has “a sweet, intense aroma” and “powerful psychedelic effects”, says WeedWiki, a website. But government fumigators, plus competition from American-grown weed, ended the Santa Marta Goldrush. Farmers switched to coca, the raw material of cocaine.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Weeds of peace”
The Americas August 6th 2016
From the August 6th 2016 edition
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