At present, Colombia is the country with the largest coca cultivating area and also the biggest producer of coca leaves and cocaine in the world. The policies and intervention models through which efforts have been made to eradicate these plantations have been changing, but the options have basically been one of these two: either executing alternative development programs aimed at making economically and socially viable the substitution of such plantations for other activities, or applying eradication programs, especially those that use air aspersion. This paper contains some elements that may be useful in balancing the policies and models which have been applied in Colombia during the last fifteen years in order to face up to illicit plantations; it also presents some considerations that anticipate such a balance.