评论
打印
This plant, it’s incredibly important.
这种植物无比重要。
It’s called coca and it mainly grows here.
它叫古柯，这里是它的主要产地。
I’m right in the middle of it right now.
我现在就在一片古柯林里。
Right down here, in southern Colombia,
就在哥伦比亚南部的这个地方，
spending the day with the anti-narcotic police, who are looking for coca plants to destroy.
我和一群要找古柯植物并将其消灭的缉毒警察一起度过了一天。
Coca is harvested by local farmers, shredded, soaked in chemicals, and then cooked down into a paste.
古柯是当地农民负责采收的，之后他们将其切碎，浸泡在化学药品中，然后煮成糊状。
This paste is sold to cartels that use a series of chemical processes
再卖给贩毒集团，贩毒集团再经由一系列的化学过程
to turn it into the white powder we call cocaine,
将其变成我们称之为“可卡因”的白色粉末，
which is then shipped around the globe, the biggest portion ending up in the United States.
然后将其运往世界各地，绝大部分最后都辗转到了美国。
But this isn’t a story about cartels or drug trafficking.
但本期要讲述的，并不是一个关于贩毒集团或贩毒的故事，
It’s not even a story about cocaine, really.
甚至也算不上是一个关于可卡因的故事，
This is a story about this leaf and the families who grow it, out here deep in the jungle.
而是一个关于丛林深处的这片叶子以及种植这种叶子的无数家庭的故事。
It’s these families who are most affected by the cocaine economy
因为受可卡因经济影响最大的恰好就是这些家庭，
and it's these families who are caught in the middle of Colombia's war on drugs.
深陷哥伦比亚毒品战争的也是这些家庭。
It’s a Friday evening and I’m at a police base that’s right at the cusp of Colombia’s vast Amazon rainforest.
这是一个周五的晚上，我来到了哥伦比亚浩瀚的亚马逊雨林边缘的一个警察基地。
This is Colombia at some of its most rural.
这里是哥伦比亚最偏远的地区。
And this region has historically been a top coca producer in the country.
过去，这里一直是该国最大的古柯产地。
The intelligence unit just got done briefing us on a possible location of some fields where coca is being harvested and processed.
情报部门刚刚向我们通报了一些有古柯正在被采收加工的农田的可能位置。
We touch down in a couple of spots, but only find abandoned farms, no coca.
我们飞去了几个位置，但都只发现废弃的农场，并没有找到古柯。
But then after a few hours, we spot it, a clearing deep in the jungle and rows and rows of this light green coca leaf.
然而几个小时后，我们找到了，在丛林深处的一片空地上，一排排全是种植的这种浅绿色的古柯苗。
We land at this coca farm and find that it’s run by a family.
我们降落在了这个古柯农场，发现它是一个家庭种植的。
There are kids here, no guns, no resistance.
农场上有孩子，没有枪，也没有反抗。
Just beside their house is a shed where they’ve been shredding the leaves,
就在他们的房屋旁边，还有一个他们用来碎古柯叶的敞篷，
which are now soaking in chemicals, the step before they get sold off the the cartels.
现在，他们已经把碎好的古柯叶浸入化学品里了，也是将其卖给贩毒集团之前的最后一道工序。
And the police aren’t here to arrest them,
警察不是来逮捕他们的，
but rather destroy their operation.
而是来摧毁他们的行动的。
Around 6 months of work and very likely, this family’s only income prospects right now.
辛苦了将近6个月，这些古柯很可能是这个家庭目前唯一的收入。
The troops are clearly aware that they’ve derailed this family’s year.
很明显，军队是知道他们让这个家庭一年的努力都白费了的。
Coca farms like these fuel an incredibly dangerous cocaine industry, which hurts tens of thousands of people every year.
然而，正是这样的古柯农场带动了一个无比危险的，每年都会毒害上千万人的可卡因行业。
So are these coca farmers the bad guys?
那么，种植古柯的这些人就是坏人吗?
If not, why are we burning their shed?
如果不是，我们为什么要烧掉他们的房子?
And if they’re farmers, why don’t they just grow another crop that isn’t illegal, like pineapple or potato?
他们是农民，那他们为什么不种植菠萝或者土豆那样不违法的作物呢?
To find this out, I needed to go back into the jungle,
为了找到答案，我需要再次回到丛林里，
but not in helicopters surrounded by police but on my own.
但不是坐着身边全是警察的直升机回去，而是我单枪匹马地回去。
Look at this chart.
大家看这张图表。
This line shows coca production over time.
这条曲线显示的是古柯产量随时间的变化情况。
And look what's happened since 2013.
注意曲线2013年之后的走势。
Coca production has hit an all-time high.
古柯产量创下了历史新高。
And the largest portion of the resulting cocaine is ending up in the United States, which is the biggest cocaine market in the world.
而由此产生的可卡因绝大部分最终都进入了美国这个世界上最大的可卡因市场。
Far away in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, the government has been trying for decades to curb this problem.
在遥远的哥伦比亚首都波哥大，几十年来政府一直在努力控制这个问题。
Over the years, they’ve tried two main tactics for eradicating coca cultivation:
多年来，他们尝试了两种根除古柯种植的主要策略:
The first entails flying over these fields and blanketing the whole area with this plant killing chemical,
第一种是用飞机往种植古柯的地里喷洒能够杀伤这种植物的化学品，
which is the same as the roundup chemical that you use to kill weeds in your yard.
这种化学品和我们用来除后院杂草的草甘膦除草剂是一样的。
The other strategy is the one that I was a part of:
另一个则是我也参与到了其中的那个策略：
Sending out troops to manual destroy the crops by uprooting it or burning the sheds where the harvest is being processed.
派兵将作物连根拔起或焚烧正在采收加工的棚子，将作物人工销毁。
But there are some major problems with these tactics.
但这些策略都存在严重的问题。
First, spraying entire areas with this plant killing chemical doesn’t just affect the coca fields, it affects anything else it touches.
首先，向整个地区喷洒除草剂不仅会影响古柯种植区，还会影响到接触到它的任何作物。
Killing food crops and the whole rainforest that surrounds these fields, which is some of the most biodiverse forest on Earth.
这样一来，粮食作物和包围这些农田的整个热带雨林，地球上生物多样性最丰富的森林之一，都会遭殃。
