How Are Coca and Cocaine Measured? Implications for Drug Policy
How Are Coca and Cocaine Measured? Implications for Drug Policy
María Alejandra Vélez, Diana Millan and Michael Weintraub.
Amid the recent debate over data from UNODC’s Integrated Illicit Crop Monitoring System (SIMCI) and the political tensions surrounding drug policy in Colombia, this document explains the main technical and policy elements behind estimates of coca cultivation and potential cocaine production. Drawing on a review of SIMCI’s methodology, it describes the processes by which cultivated hectares are estimated from satellite imagery, as well as the calculations...
