The 12-year-old Drug Smuggler was broadcast on Wednesday, 17 January, 2007 at 2100 GMT on BBC Two.

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The comments published reflect a balance of views we have received.

This for me was possibly one of the most moving, informative and relevant documentaries in recent times. I would strongly suggest this be shown in schools. Informing children of the real social consequences of Western consumerism/politics would surely be as much a deterent as a picture of a missing septum?
Frances Smith, Brighton

A very informative and truthful programme highlighting the real issues faced by a poor country like Bolivia. Hopefully we will see more documentaries from this under-reported continent.
Martyn, Warrington

ANOTHER programme about drugs and crime in Latin America! Don't you get tired of it? Myself and my Brazilian wife do. Do you think nothing GOOD ever happens in South America and that ALL the people are involved in drugs and crime? Do you think ALL the kids there are on the streets and poor? That's all we EVER see about Brazil too!
John Rowlands, Liverpool

Thank you This World for this documentary. It is sad to see the predicament of the families and generations in the jungle. The coca leaves are providing essential income for these families living in unacceptable poverty. I can understand why the women and the mothers carry drugs. The US government should shoulder the responsibility, in my view. Their law threatens to take away the livelihood of the Cocaleros, hence the basic human needs of food, clothes and shelter.
Angela, Glasgow

I, like Toria, worked with an NGO in San Sabastian prison in 2004-5. By teaching the women crafts, they not only have the means to support themselves, but also to support their children. Previously, women would send their children to beg on the streets to earn money, but with the introduction of the crafts project, laundry and bakery, the women have means to pay their rent and buy their food in the prison.

Even though their parents are locked in the prison, the children have the freedom to come and go. Across the square from San Sebastian is a childrens project, giving the kids of prisoners the skills and activites which will set them up for life, and so hopefully less likely to follow the path their mothers were obliged to take.
Niki, London

People should open their eyes and see how the West have turned a little girl into a drug carrier. We all should stand and put a stop to it.
Newman, London

In Colombia many coca growers used to grow coffee and switched to more lucrative coca when the coffee price fell through the floor and they couldn't feed their children. We need to develop a more balanced, adult, drugs policy and curtail the "free trade" with the Third World that is anything but. Until then, while we screw up their lives with globalisation, they should feel quite ok about screwing up our lives with addictive drugs.
Moflard, UK

I actually worked with the ladies in San Sebastian prison and some ex-prisoners for a year in 2003-04 through an NGO. I taught them art and craft so that they could sell the handicraft they made through the small business we were trying to develop. The ladies inside are in a desperate state - locked in a vicious cycle of poverty. Many of them have several kids, no husband and have no way of feeding their children as unemployment is high. It is a very sad situation. Someone offers them money to carry a package from A to B and it is very tempting. However once caught they are sucked into further debt as they have to pay for their stay in prison as well as for lawyers to try to get them out.

It is very stressful for them living each day not knowing if they will have enough food or if they will ever be able to break out of the cycle they are in. In many ways I think if coca leaves really could be marketed and sold for their medicinal purposes worldwide, like peppermint tea, there would be sufficient work for the cocaleros so they would not have to resort to producing cocaine. I actually really liked coca leaf tea and drank it all the time there.
Toria , Guildford

I made a point of watching this documentary with my 16-year-old daughter, at her request. Congratulations to all the team and participants who brought this to our screens. What is so sad for most of these people is that there seems to be so little choice for them in their lives and they have so little control over their destiny. What can we do to help - campaign to have the law changed? Highlight their plight? But what then, what can we actually do to help to make a difference in their lives? We feel so helpless.
Maria Croydon, Dublin

An excellent programme giving an insight into the lives of many Bolivian people. Our friends are currently in Cochabamba working in an orphanage for six months and it was good to see the area and people. The situation out there at the moment is very volatile and there were riots in Cochabamba last week with two dead and the town hall burnt down. We would be interested in more programmes focusing on the politics of this area.
Anne Marie Proudfoot, Manchester

According to the coca museum in La Paz, 50% of the world's cocaine is consumed in the US. This points to the problem being in the US, yet, they pursue a foreign policy which bullies countries like Bolivia into passing laws which send a 12-year-old girl to prison. I'm sure their influence and cash could be used in a far more positive manner.
Ron Mackenzie, Edinburgh

The best film about coca in Bolivia since Brian Moser's 1970s films. Excellent translating, good camera work and all rang very true. It made sensible points about the logicality of the main consuming nation (US) trying to penalise the poor producing countries.
David P, Oxford

I feel for the poor people in Bolivia, but drugs are not good and they never will be. Why can the world not help poorer countries unite and form uber-countries where poverty can be resolved?
Edward Lewis, Macclesfield

It is so depressing that this child was pulled to such a destiny. If they gave a hand to this child when she was first caught she wouldn't have gone so far. There is no justice in this world. While one is dying from bombs, others are out and about enjoying life to the maximum! I hope for peace and love between all nations and all religions.
Canan, London

Bolivia is a big country with such diversity you'd probably have years of amazing documentary footage to make, but by doing a film about drugs and how poor people are, you also send the completely wrong message to an audience that already has no idea about the place.
Daniela Komarek, UK