Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Starbucks enters Argentina

Starbucks will open its first Argentine coffee shop in the country's capital Buenos Aires. For more, see here.

Smoking paco (a form of crack cocaine) in Argentina and Brazil

A smokable form of crack cocaine called paco is a new problem for Argentina and Brazil. For more, see here.

India hopes to fight Argentina for the American iced tea market

For success in the American market, India's tea exporters must compete in the category of bottled, canned, and packeted (iced) teas, 20% of the USA consumption, and growing even more rapidly than bottled water. Surprisingly Argentina provides nearly half of American tea, while China and Indonesia also sell more tea to the USA than does India. [It is not clear when the statement about Argentina applies only to tea sold in containers or to all imported tea in America.] The problem for India is that its tea becomes cloudy when chilled and smokes when refrigerated. For more, see here. By the way, apparently the only tea plantation is the USA is in South Carolina.

Starbucks scales back US growth slightly

Starbucks reported that the number of its American customers declined by 1% in the fourth quarter of 2006 and that it has reduced by a hundred the number of its planned new stores in the USA. This still means 2500 new stores in the USA in 2008 and 900 new ones elsewhere, including its first in Argentina and Portugal. For more, see here. Some analysts blamed price increases. Similar drinks could be found for a dollar less at McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts, for instance. For more, see here.

Argentine farmers won't kick tobacco habit

Aregentina has joined the list of nations cracking down on smoking and its tobacco.  The country's farmers have long been encouraged to replace at least some of their tobacco crops with alternatives ranging from pigs to pine trees.

But in regions like the verdant province of Misiones, tobacco is still the most profitable crop for small farmers, and growing tobacco lets them join a union that gives them health insurance and the power to negotiate better prices with tobacco companies.

Reuters reports.

Coca as Symbol and Labor Enhancer in the Andes (article)

Vicki Cassman, Larry Cartmell, Eliana Belmonte, “Coca as Symbol and Labor Enhancer in the Andes: A Historical Overview.” Drugs, labor, and colonial expansion. Ed. William Jankowiak and Daniel Bradburd. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2003, pp. 149 - 158.

Latin America's "wrong left" and drug trafficking

Jorge G. Castañeda, in the May/June 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs, counsels Washington and the international community on what they should do about "Latin America's left turn." Castañeda characterizes his "wrong left" with many "moral" problems, including the tolerance of drug trafficking.

The international community should also clarify what it expects from the "wrong left," given that it exists and that attempts to displace it would be not only morally unacceptable but also pragmatically ineffective. The first point to emphasize is that Latin American governments of any persuasion must abide by their countries' commitments regarding human rights and democracy. The region has built up an incipient scaffolding on these matters over recent years, and any backsliding, for whatever reason or purpose, should be met by a rebuke from the international community. The second point to stress is that all governments must continue to comply with the multilateral effort to build a new international legal order, one that addresses, among other things, the environment, indigenous people's rights, international criminal jurisdiction (despite Washington's continued rejection of the International Criminal Court and its pressure on several Latin American governments to do the same), nuclear nonproliferation, World Trade Organization rules and norms, regional agreements, and the fight against corruption, drug trafficking, and terrorism, consensually defined. Europe and the United States have enormous leverage in many of these countries. They should use it.

Full text here.

Argentina, vinedos, bodegas & vinos

Vidal Buzzi, Fernando, Cesreo Fuentes Rodriguez, and Augusto Foix. Argentina, vinedos, bodegas & vinos. Buenos Aires: Editorial Llamoso, 2000. [In Spanish.]

These citations originally appeared in recent “Current Literature” sections of The Social History of Alcohol Review. Jon Miller and David Fahey compiled and edited them. They were also available on the Alcohol and Drugs History Society’s old website, http://athg.org.

Kosher wine from Argentina

The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles reports (15 March 2005) on the status of wineries in Latin America and their role in producing wine for the United States' Jewish community in accordance with the laws of kashrut . Find the full story here.

Coca, Drugs and Social Protest in Bolivia and Peru

A March 2005 report by the International Crisis Group, entitled "Coca, Drugs and Social Protest in Bolivia and Peru," can be found here.

Brief Summary

Bolivia and Peru are becoming a second, though compared to Colombia still relatively small-scale, pole of cocaine production in the Andes, feeding in particular a growing Latin American market in addition to the traditional U.S. and European markets. At least as significantly, the policies emphasised there in pursuit of the U.S.-led war on drugs are aggravating social tensions with potentially explosive results for the extremely fragile democratic institutions of both countries. If these trends are to be reversed, new and better funded policies are needed that put greater emphasis on alternative development and institution building, less on forced eradication, and that demonstrate more sensitivity to local culture. The proposed new U.S. budget, however, goes in the wrong direction.

Cocaine inquiry raises concerns about traffic through Argentina

The Herald Tribune reports (16 March 2005) from Buenos Aires that the suspiciously negligent handling of an inquiry into a major drug smuggling incident has led to a partial purge of Argentina's military and security forces and the emergence of concerns that the country has become a new target for South American narcotics traffickers. Find the full story here.

Narco-Scandal Rocks Argentina

The Narco News Bulletin reports (10 March 2005) that Néstor Kirchner, the President of Argentina, has done more to combat narco traffic in the past month than the US has done in 6 presidential terms. He has, most recently, fired a score of top military officials in a narco-scandal rocking the country. Find the full story here.

Smoking Behaviour among Women in Argentina (Article)

An abstract for an article by E. Matos, D. Loria, G. Amestoy, L. Herrera, M. Angel Prince, N. Munoz, R. Herrero, entitled "Smoking behavior and its determinants among women in Concordia, Argentina," in Nicotine Tobacco Research 6/1 (February 2004): 103 - 108, can be found here.