Paco, or cocaine paste is a chemical derivative of cocaine, developed by Latin American drug-makers and traffickers for sale on the low-cost market throughout the region. Recently, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, it has become the drug of choice. The drug, created mostly from the chemical residue left over from cocaine production, costs pennies and is sometimes given away for free at first in order to acquire new users. In sum, paco, similar to crack, is the cocaine waste fed to the desperate and vulnerable poor. Paco is smoked rather than ingested. Because it is inhaled, paco gives the user a rapid, intense high, but wears off quickly leaving the user immediately “needing” more. Paco causes severe damage to the brain and internal organs.

Increased Use

Argentina has long been a market for cocaine in addition to being used as a transit point for illegal drugs leaving the continent, but the use of paco is a relatively new trend. The Argentine Secretariat for Prevention of Drug Addiction and Control of Narcotrafficking (SEDRONAR) notes that paco has outpaced all other drugs in rates of adolescent users since 2004. By mid-2006, approximately 70,000 Argentines under the age of 26 had tried paco. It began becoming a problem after the ill-fated Argentinean economic crisis of 2001, which left the poorest even poorer. During the same time period an increased number of drug processing facilities were constructed in the tri-border region of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil as well as in the Andes Mountains to the west. As the crackdown on drug trafficking in Colombia and most recently Mexico began, drug gangs adapted to the new environment and evolved, spreading their production facilities south into Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, etc. Thus with drug operations becoming more prevalent in the region and the economic shock, drug users and abusers that previously splurged on cocaine could only afford the lower-cost, newly developed cocaine byproduct. Drug dealers had an entirely new market. They could continue selling pure cocaine to the US and Europe, but now reap the benefits of selling their chemical waste to poor Latin Americans.

Assisting the Growth

Latin America has been a major source of illicit drugs in the United States and Europe for decades. Since the early 1990s, the US has spent more than $25 billion on source country eradication and interdiction. Not only has US anti-drug intervention in Latin America proven to be somewhat ineffective, it has significantly contributed to the development and abuse of paco, especially in Argentina. Drug makers have spread their operations into new countries because of strict anti-drug movements in Colombia and Mexico. This allows their products to reach more communities with greater ease. Additionally, Latin American authorities, in their US-sponsored fight against drugs, have made it increasingly difficult to move the legal chemicals used in cocaine production across international borders. As such, drug traffickers have moved production facilities to countries where the chemicals are made, mainly Brazil and Argentina. Also, a crackdown against the chemicals has forced drug gangs to become creative in disposal. Now they just “dispose” the chemicals into paco.

Authorities Crack Down

Argentine lawmakers began legislating specifically against paco as early as December 2005. At that time, a law expanded enforcement nets by letting provincial courts and police forces join federal troops in enforcing drug laws. Since, over 20 raids have produced major seizures of paco. However, almost 90 percent of the arrests in the past years have been against personal users and not against makers or distributors. Thus, paco production and distribution still continues unabated. In order to combat the growing threat of paco and other illicit drug use in Latin America, authorities must continue to crack down against drug makers, traffickers, and distributors. Foreign aid will likely play a role in the fight and international cooperation will be necessary if Latin American nations ever want to even partially eliminate regional drug use.