What if I told you there was an ancient Indian herb that had miraculous effects, stimulating productivity? One that reduces hunger, thirst, pain and fatigue? One that can keep you awake at all hours, that had anasthetic properties, and alleviated altitude sickness? Well, there is one: It's called coca, and it's one of the more popular crops in the Bolivian highlands. A few decades ago, someone managed to figure out how to isolate the key active ingredient from it--cocaine--and since it's well, it's done alright, you might say.

Unfortunately, the global market for cocaine seems to have diminished in the wake of the war, with new synthetics displacing it abroad and overall demand for it as an 'upper' being somewhat neglected, though the upper classes certainly still have some users of the substance. However, the utility of the white powder is undeniable as a way to improve labor productivity and even military performance, and it is this application that the Bolivian government has found most interesting.

As a result, the Bolivian government has formed COBOL, the Bolivian cocaine and coca monopoly, which is the sole legal buyer [though not producer] of all coca leaves and products, at set prices for each particular cultivated variety. COBOL is also the sole legal refiner and producer of coca products, which will include both capsules and raw powder forms of cocaine, which will be refined at new plants in Bolivia itself. A line of coca wine will also be produced in collaboration with Al-bol. More innocous products like coca tea, coca granola, coca soda and other health-food products will also be manufactured by COBOL.

Similar to tobacco and alcohol production, the police will be tasked with ensuring no competing refining operations are running, and preferably prevent the private trade of coca leaves, though given the decentralized nature of Bolivian society we aren't especially confident this effort will be all that successful.

At the moment, COBOL will not work with export sales, with global demand slumping and largely met by Colombia and Chile, instead targeting solely the domestic market, which will soon, it is hoped, replace the counterrevolutionary liquor with the firmly revolutionary cocaine, now cheap, legal, and widely available--something that will stimulate their productivity while simultaneously raising government revenues. While some have expressed concerns about the potential "moral consequences", and that the usage of cocaine could lead to "bourgeoisie tendencies", the general opinion of the Bolivian government is that this is what they call a "later problem".