Marihuana consumption in Colombia did not become spread as a simple result of its increased use as part of the north-American counterculture of the 1960s. Even though increased crop growing spiraled to satisfy north-American demand at the end of the 1960s and 1970s, there was an important market for domestic consumption in Colombia. On the other and, exonerating-type academic literature tending to see countries such as Colombia as the passive victims of externally-induced phenomena is questioned.