According to “The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics” by Richard Davenport-Hines, opium poppy cultivation on a meaningful scale was introduced to Colombia by the Cali cartel for diversification purposes in the 1980’s. The Cali cartel, one feels safe in saying, needed no instruction from Americans as to what crops to grow.
Per qersys, it is possible that some American at some point in history advised some South American to grow poppies. If so it had no lasting significance. The answer to the O.P., for both coca and opium, is an unequivocal “no”.
You know, I’d also like to point out that coca and poppies have legitimate uses beyond drug-making. Coca, for instance, is used in Coca-Cola. It also (IIRC, please correct if wrong) an ingredient in several medicines. Plus, it has stimulative effects when chewed. I believe it is also eaten as a plain old salad ingredient in several South American countries.
Cocaine must be heavily refined and concentrated from the coca leaf.
Really, who needs to be “taught” how to grow flowers and scrape out the seed pods, anyway? Opium production is a pretty simple process. The only teacher you need is a library card.
There’s also plenty of opium poppies being grown legally for medical purposes. From what I’ve read, the vast majority of prescription, non-synthetic opiates comes from poppy farms in Tasmania.
Neurotik, I don’t know about “several medicines,” but cocaine is indeed a topical anesthetic. Anecdotally, I’ve heard that it’s rarely used because there are much better drugs for the job. RxList’s extremely short description would seem to confirm that.
Well, it’s certainly safer than aspirin in the sense of acute toxicity. It’s fairly easy to overdose on aspirin; I don’t know the exact ND50, but if you were to consume a big handful of aspirin, you’d better get to the emergency room, pronto. Marijuana, on the other hand, is more or less impossible to overdose on.
Regarding the “largest cash crop” thing, I’ve heard this bandied about many a time, but never seen a definitive, quantitative assessment. The nature of the cannabis trade would make such an inquiry impossible, I’d wager.
They’ve been smoking opium in China for far longer than Europeans have even been in North or South America. The knowledge has been around for ages.
Perhaps we did teach those in South America how to grow it. I’m not going to dispute that. I will say they’d have learned it eventually anyway. In the 19th century we believed these drugs to be good for us, ways to stay healthy, and so we needed a supplier for our fix. If it wasn’t South America, we’d have gone elsewhere.