Before the leaders of fifty countries who met in Vienna, Austria for the 52nd Conference of the United Nations Committee on Narcotic Drugs, Bolivian President Evo Morales took out a coca leaf, a plant from which cocaine is derived, and chewed it, demanding its removal from the list of banned substances.
“The coca leaf is not cocaine,” said the Bolivian president who is also union leader of coca growers in his country. He added, “It is not harmful to health. It does not create psychological disturbances or dependency.”
He then expounded on his arguments saying that the coca plant has been grown since “three thousand years before Christ” and that it is considered “sacred” in Bolivia. Morales also revealed that he has been using coca ‘for ten years.’ He argues, “If the effects were as we described, I would never become President of the Republic. It is fun. If it is a drug, then you must put me in jail.”
Coca farming has been a major bone of contention between the Bolivian government and the US that wants to stamp out coca culture in the Andean region where almost ten million people use coca.
Evo Morales’ pro-coca campaign at the UN comes at a time when the agency admits that their anti-drug policy should be fully reviewed. An independent report commissioned by the European Commission came to the conclusion that, for ten years, the global fight against drugs has been a failure.
The United Nations Office against Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has acknowledged that the UN policy indirectly led to the creation of ‘a criminal market around the drug worth an estimated $300 billion per year.’
Morales supports the growing of coca but opposes drug trafficking.
Via Bolivia UN
