Pubdate: Sat, 14 Mar 2009
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2009 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Evo Morales Ayma
Note: Evo Morales Ayma is the president of Bolivia.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/spirit.htm (Spiritual or Sacramental)
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/ungass.htm (UN Declaration on Drugs)
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/people/Evo+Morales

LET ME CHEW MY COCA LEAVES

THIS week in Vienna, a meeting of the United Nations Commission on 
Narcotic Drugs took place that will help shape international antidrug 
efforts for the next 10 years. I attended the meeting to reaffirm 
Bolivia's commitment to this struggle but also to call for the 
reversal of a mistake made 48 years ago.

In 1961, the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 
placed the coca leaf in the same category with cocaine — thus 
promoting the false notion that the coca leaf is a narcotic — and 
ordered that "coca leaf chewing must be abolished within 25 years 
from the coming into force of this convention." Bolivia signed the 
convention in 1976, during the brutal dictatorship of Col. Hugo 
Banzer, and the 25-year deadline expired in 2001.

So for the past eight years, the millions of us who maintain the 
traditional practice of chewing coca have been, according to the 
convention, criminals who violate international law. This is an 
unacceptable and absurd state of affairs for Bolivians and other 
Andean peoples.

Many plants have small quantities of various chemical compounds 
called alkaloids. One common alkaloid is caffeine, which is found in 
more than 50 varieties of plants, from coffee to cacao, and even in 
the flowers of orange and lemon trees. Excessive use of caffeine can 
cause nervousness, elevated pulse, insomnia and other unwanted effects.

Another common alkaloid is nicotine, found in the tobacco plant. Its 
consumption can lead to addiction, high blood pressure and cancer; 
smoking causes one in five deaths in the United States. Some 
alkaloids have important medicinal qualities. Quinine, for example, 
the first known treatment for malaria, was discovered by the Quechua 
Indians of Peru in the bark of the cinchona tree.

The coca leaf also has alkaloids; the one that concerns antidrug 
officials is the cocaine alkaloid, which amounts to less than 
one-tenth of a percent of the leaf. But as the above examples show, 
that a plant, leaf or flower contains a minimal amount of alkaloids 
does not make it a narcotic. To be made into a narcotic, alkaloids 
must typically be extracted, concentrated and in many cases processed 
chemically. What is absurd about the 1961 convention is that it 
considers the coca leaf in its natural, unaltered state to be a 
narcotic. The paste or the concentrate that is extracted from the 
coca leaf, commonly known as cocaine, is indeed a narcotic, but the 
plant itself is not.

Why is Bolivia so concerned with the coca leaf? Because it is an 
important symbol of the history and identity of the indigenous 
cultures of the Andes.

The custom of chewing coca leaves has existed in the Andean region of 
South America since at least 3000 B.C. It helps mitigate the 
sensation of hunger, offers energy during long days of labor and 
helps counter altitude sickness. Unlike nicotine or caffeine, it 
causes no harm to human health nor addiction or altered state, and it 
is effective in the struggle against obesity, a major problem in many 
modern societies.

Today, millions of people chew coca in Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and 
northern Argentina and Chile. The coca leaf continues to have ritual, 
religious and cultural significance that transcends indigenous 
cultures and encompasses the mestizo population.

Mistakes are an unavoidable part of human history, but sometimes we 
have the opportunity to correct them. It is time for the 
international community to reverse its misguided policy toward the coca leaf.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom