BOLIVIA asks UN to legalise coca leaf but not cocaine

Coca leaf (Erythroxylon coca)

THE CASE

Most gringos travelling in the high Andes of Bolivia and Peru, will have seen and probably been offered coca leaf to chew as an antidote to altitude sickness. They probably have also been given mate de coca (coca tea). It as an acquired taste but it works. Tourists will usually see piles of coca leaf for sale in the local markets.

mate de coca

Coca (Erythroxylon coca) has been cultivated for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years in the Andes. During the Incan and Spanish rules the Quechua and Aymara Indians chewed the leaves to alleviate hunger, combat fatigue and control altitude sickness. This tradition has carried forward until present day.

In the late 1980s, at the behest of the US, the United Nations (UN) classified coca leaf along with cocaine as a controlled substance. Legal and prohibited zones for growing coca in Bolivia were mapped out, and then US funded military and paramilitary operations were mounted to destroy illegal crops.

More recently the UN called upon the Andean nations to criminalise the chewing of coca leaves, and to to establish as a criminal offence the use of the leaf to make tea, flour and other products. This will anger the many Bolivian Indians who are currently legally entitled to cultivate up to 40 square metres of coca plant for personal use.

Now the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has said that Bolivia will petition the UN to have coca leaf reclassified. President Morales calls coca The Sacred Leaf (hoja sagrada) and says it is not harmful and should not be confused with the drug cocaine extracted from the leaf. "Coca no es cocaína" is his catch cry. The process is said to be rather complex as the leaf usually contains only 0.2% cocaine.

We should note that President Morales is a former coca farmer, and he was re-elected last month as the head of the coca-growers association. There is nothing underhand about this, he has always campaigned for, and was elected as a representative of the coca growers.

President Morales has a massive fight on his hands. As the president of one of the worlds poorest countries, he has to take on the might of the United States. He is lobbying very hard, with the only obvious support coming from Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

As an aside the committee representing the coca farmers sent a resolution to the UN to demand that "international companies that include in their commercial name the name of coca refrain from using the name of The Sacred Leaf in their products".

Unsurprisingly Coca-Cola responded with a statement that its trademark "the most valuable and recognised brand in the world" was protected under Bolivian law. Well if parmesan cheese can only come from Parma in Italy and burgundy can only come from the Burgundy region of France, maybe coca can only come from the high Andes - it sort of makes sense, almost.

MY VERDICT

It is extremely culturally insensitive of the United Nations to insist on banning the traditional use of coca leaf. Any such ban would be counter-productive as it would drive the whole industry underground and into the hands of the black marketeers, as it is in Columbia. Those pressing for this ban haven't even managed a cogent case.

Remember what happened in the U.S. during the terrible prohibition years. Learn from history!