UN General Assembly
1984

29. Traditionally, the fight against this form of crime has focused on the producing countries. Following that logic, the cheapest and most effective method is to eliminate illegal cultivation and to prevent the processing of drugs by using control programmes and punitive measures in producing countries. Nevertheless, since production in fact responds to demand, the heart of the problem is in the purchasing countries. At least in so far as concerns Bolivia, this conclusion is supported by indisputable cultural and historical evidence. It must be recalled that in the Andean countries the innocent use of the coca leaf is as old as their civilizations themselves, without drugs being a factor of social degradation. 30. Furthermore, it is also clear that most of the earnings generated by this illegal activity remain in the consuming countries and, to a less degree, with the intermediaries, increasing the wealth and scope for action of organized crime. The producers receive a very tiny fraction of those earnings, as is the case with most exports from the developing world.