The cocaine industry provides employment for tens of thousands of poor farmers and traders. Cocaine's economic benefits, however, have been accompanied by social ills ranging from corruption and drug abuse to decreasing food production and superfluous consumption. Solutions to its drug-related problems present Bolivia with a difficult dilemma between economic survival and social well-being. Moreover, effective opposition to coca leaf eradication programs comes from well-organized peasant unions tied closely to the national labor movement. Genuine developmental solutions must provide attractive prices for alternate crops via preferential export markets in the United States and Europe. Although a peasant-based agricultural development strategy may move Bolivia in a promising new direction, the focus also needs to be on reducing world demand for cocaine. The political influence of drug traffickers in developing countries such as Bolivia is discussed. 15 references