While the war against drugs has consumed approximately $40 billion

dollars per year in the last 4 decades, there is very limited evidence on

its e
ectiveness. This paper studies the e
ects of a popular supply-side

intervention (aerial spraying with herbicides) in Colombia to answer this

question. For this purpose, I use a unique and rich data set with satellite

information on the exact geographic location of coca crops between 2000

and 2010 to identify the e
ects of spraying on coca production and the so-

cioeconomic conditions of coca-producing areas. I exploit the exogenous

variation created by governmental restrictions to spraying in protected

areas and US international supply anti-drug expenditures to identify the

e
ects of the program. My results point to small e
ects of involuntary

eradication programs on drug production (a quarter reduction in coca

grown per hectare sprayed) and sizable unintended e
ects on the socioe-

conomic conditions on coca-producing areas such as rural poverty rates

and infant mortality. I conduct a series of robustness checks and provide

some speculative evidence on the mechanisms by which spraying a
ects

the socioeconomic outcomes.