Culture - Evo Morales on Coca-- or Why Coca is not a Drug

[enquirewithin]

AMY GOODMAN: Welcome to Democracy Now! and the United States, President Evo Morales. Why did you bring a coca leaf to the United Nations?
PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] First of all, thanks very much for the invitation to speak with you today. It’s the first time I’ve been in these lands, the United States. And as the coca leaf has been permanently accused of being a drug, so I brought the leaf to demonstrate that the coca leaf is not a drug. The coca leaf is green. It’s not white. So I came to show that the coca leaf is not a drug and it can be beneficial to humanity. So that’s why I was there at the first ordinary session at the United Nations with a coca leaf. Had it been a drug, I would have been detained certainly. We’re starting the campaign to bring dignity back to the coca leaf, starting with the decriminalization of the coca leaf.
AMY GOODMAN: How is it used for beneficial purposes? Why is it so important to you in Bolivia?
PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] The coca leaf is part of culture. There is legal consumption, traditional consumption, which is called the piccheo in Bolivia, the chaccheo in Peru, el mambeo in Colombia, which is the traditional chewing of coca. Moreover, this traditional consumption is backed up by scientific research done in universities in Europe and the United States. Not long ago a study came out of Harvard University that said it’s a very nutritious – it’s a good source of nutrition, that it can not only be used through chewing, but could also be consumed through eating. The last study done by the World Health Organization has demonstrated clearly that the coca leaf does no harm to people.
And there’s also ritual uses, including in the Aymara culture, for example, when you ask for someone’s hand in marriage, the coca leaf plays an important part in that ritual. We could also talk about a number of pharmaceutical products that come or derive from the coca leaf. The first local anesthetics that were used in modern medicine were derived from the coca leaf. Up to some five, six, seven years ago, there was a company from the United States that used to come to the Chapare to buy coca to be exported to the United States for the use in making Coca-Cola. And we can think of a lot of products, industrial products, that could be derived from the coca leaf that would be beneficial to humanity.

This is part of an interview.

[Benga]

coca can also be called a "drug". It really is a "drug", but a highly positive one, better for one's health than another "drug" coffee for instance. SWIM thinks the term drug shouldn't be associated with something evil, bad, morally wrong, unhealthy. But in Morales' position, trying to make public opinion realise that coca use has nothing to do with cocaine use, this shortcut is understandable.
side effects of daily chewing of coca are halithosis and possible tooth problems linked to limestone paste / or quinoa ash as a basifying agent. Tooth problems are avoided by using sodium bicarbonate instead.

[SPWIM]

Indeed. Cannabis isn't a drug, either. Let's decriminalise that

[Nagognog2]

Pardon my pure cynicism, but:

Bush & Co. have all but declared war on Morales of Bolivia, and Chavez of Venezuela. Let's see what we got going in South America here in the US of A (holes)...

Morales wants to finance his nation with coca leaves. Chavez is giving away oil to people who need it at lower than current market prices. Coca leaves are considered an international terror-drug by Bush & Co. Oil is considered the fuel we (USA) need to finance the "War without end" against terrorists. Here is my take:

Bush & Co. will murder Morales. The CIA (as they have done many times before) will smuggle the refined cocaine from the Coca leaves to sell to Americans to finance the "Endless War." Bush & Co. will pour the money from the cocaine into Venezuela to finance a coup against Chavez and return the oil industry to American corporate interests. The taxes, though small as the corporations hardly pay anything in taxes under Bush & Co., will finance the construction of new prisons in the US of A to lock up the users of the cocaine brought in by the CIA for Bush & Co.

Hurray! Bush & Co. created more jobs!

By writing this, I hope we caught 'em before they do it. Bolivia? Remember Che Guevara.

[Forthesevenlakes]

Coca leaf has been used for thousands of years with few apparent ill effects. The ones that exist as benga said can be counteracted with simple preventative measures. Chewing the coca leaf is a tradition of native south american peoples and does not seem to show the addiction potential that cocaine does. I'm glad Morales has the balls to take this all the way to the UN.

[Paracelsus]

i admire morales for his initiative on making coca leaves popular.

but saying that coca leaves aren't drugs is complete bullshit. by his definition, drugs are "white". Green things can't be drugs according to him.

But what this statement does is it shows the result of the US war on drugs. Morales doesn't want to call coca a drug, but that's just because if he did, he would suffer an extreme popularity loss. And that is because in the average citizen's mind the word "drug" is related to addiction, death, violence and shit. So he can't say coca is a drug, but its safe, because people will think that is an oxymoron, because "all drugs are bad". Morales wants people to look at coca as a medicine or supplement, that is beneficial for one's health and tonus. If he would have called coca a "beneficial drug", nobody would believe him because "how can something that ruined thousands of lives be beneficial"?
I am not criticizing Morales for this statement, he and his nation is just another victim of the war on drugs. People are indoctrinated and closed-minded, so we have to adjust. There's no way around this, especially in politics.

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