But drug crop cultivation is also environmentally costly. Additional environmental damage ensues from the cultivation and processing of these crops, which involves large volumes of pesticides, fertilizers, and toxic processing chemicals that end up being washed or dumped into rivers.
Some experts feel the answer to the problem is eradication of the crops through herbicides.
But others claim that herbicidal eradication may cause more harm than good to human and environmental health. Unfortunately, it is currently impossible to quantify the damage from drug crop eradication efforts because of the violence surrounding drug production.