Washington, DC - Friday, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released the U.S. Government’s annual estimates of coca cultivation and cocaine production potential for the Plurinational State of Bolivia.  According to these estimates, Bolivia remains the third largest producer of cocaine in the world.

Bolivia’s coca cultivation totaled 32,900 hectares in 2018, an increase of 6 percent over 2017, increasing cocaine production potential by 2 percent to 254 metric tons.  The Yungas region remained the largest coca cultivation area in Bolivia, while the combined Carrasco and Chapare regions represent the second largest.  Cultivation is 50 percent over the limit established by the Bolivian government by an estimated 10,900 hectares.

According to the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)—the most recent year for which data is available—the number of current cocaine users in America is 1.9 million, a 27 percent increase since 2014. The survey also indicated a decrease in the number of Americans who initiated cocaine use in the past year, from 1.1 million in 2016 to 874,000 in 2018.  According to provisional CDC estimates, cocaine-involved overdose deaths rose 174 percent from 2014 (5,415 deaths) to 2018 (14,829 deaths).