Bolivia Gets Higher

Yahoo News carries an Agence France-Presse story about increasing coca production in Bolivia, it features President Morales waving a bottle of coca-based liquor.

Leftist president Evo Morales dismissed warnings that an increase in coca crops would fuel the illegal drug trade.

The coca leaf is commonly chewed or drunk like tea, but drug gangs make it into cocaine in a chemical process that brings out its narcotic qualities.

Bolivia is the third biggest coca producer in the world after Colombia and Peru. Those two countries are trying to reduce their coca crops to curb drug-trafficking.

Former president Jorge Quiroga said Morales's move would "bring international shame" on Bolivia "due to the stigma of drug-trafficking and the crime that it will cause."