International - Coca crackdown

[Lunar Loops]

Realise this could have also gone into the Coca forum, but this is largely to do with developments in drug policy. This well written article is from The Guardian (UK):

Coca crackdown

Moves to ban cultivation of coca plants in Latin America are driven by politics, not by health issues or protection of the public

The Incas chewed it. For the last 3,000 years the indigenous peoples of Bolivia and Peru have chewed or drunk coca tea without any apparent harm to their health. It is also used by healers and in ceremonial offerings to the gods. Pope John Paul II even drank coca tea on a visit to Bolivia in 1988. Now a UN body wants to ban it.

The INCB (International Narcotics Control Board) has decided to crack down on the culture of coca among the Indian population of the Andes as part of the increasingly futile efforts to stem the flow of cocaine to western countries. According to the INCB report, "Consuming the raw, unprocessed leaf abets the progression of drug dependence." No credible scientific evidence has been advanced to support this hotly-contested claim.

The INCB recommendation that the UN should outlaw the plant has angered the indigenous peoples of the Andes and their governments. Bolivia and Peru view this decision taken in faraway Vienna by UN-appointed drug enforcement bureaucrats as totally out of touch with their culture and in conflict with the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The coca plant - which in the wrong hands can be turned into cocaine - also produces coca-tea, a mild stimulant rich in minerals and vitamins including calcium, phosphorus, iron as well as the vitamins A, E, B2 and other B complex vitamins Among its many therapeutic benefits, it is effective for altitude sickness in the Andean mountains and is an energy booster for fatigue. Native tribes in Peru and Bolivia traditionally used the leaves of the coca plant to treat all kinds of ailments and conditions ranging from dietary inadequacies to gastrointestinal disorders, patients affected by spells of nausea and chronic headaches. Coca tea is as much as part of the tribal life in the Andean regions as coffee is for Brazilians and Italians, and as other kinds of tea are for the English.

Earlier this month, the judgement of INCB officials responsible for interpreting international drug conventions, was fiercely challenged for the first time in its history. Bolivian deputy foreign minister Hugo Fernandez delivered a feisty speech to the INCB assembly in Vienna attacking the cultural arrogance and insensitivity of the 13-member Vienna Narcotics Board, stressing that the coca leaf is not cocaine.

The first-ever elected president from the indigenous peoples of the world, Bolivia's Evo Morales, blasted the INCB report as colonialist. Fernandez ended his speech to the assembled delegates by proclaiming in his native Quechua tongue: "Long live the coca leaf!" - and later in Spanish and English.

The decision of the UN drug czars at INCB has huge implications. To outlaw the coca leaf is to criminalise millions of people in Bolivia and Peru, to overrule national laws in pursuit of US-driven "war on drugs", and all of this without any justifiable scientific evidence.

The Transnational Institute in Amsterdam which conducts research on drug policies and development has lambasted the INCB position. Martin Jelsma, TNI programme coordinator, declared that "the inclusion of the coca leaf in schedule 1 of narcotic drugs of the 1961 convention was based on a study done back in 1950, inspired by colonialist and racist sentiments rather than science.:

So why has the INCB called for all cultivation, consumption and trade in the coca plant and coca tea to be outlawed? The controversial decision is driven by ideology and politics, not by health issues or protection of the public.

The first factor relates to the failure to stem the flow of cocaine in western capitals, despite the billions of dollars that various US governments have spent with Plan Colombia and Latin American drug wars. Most of the cocaine still flows from Colombia, not Bolivia and Peru.

International studies, including one from Harvard University, say that raw coca is loaded with protein, calcium, iron and a range of vitamins. Bolivian President Evo Morales has recently announced plans to develop legal coca as a national resource, and using it to make everything from flour to toothpaste, shampoo and curative lotions and to export to the world. (Morales sent Fidel Castro a coca cake for his 80th birthday last year.)

This is a vision that has alarmed the US government and its INCB allies. The narrow-minded obsession with drug enforcement leads to an inability to clearly distinguish between the coca plant and a derivative called cocaine. Sadly, UN drug agencies have become far too closely associated with the so-called "war on drugs", ending up at odds with other UN agencies promoting human rights, health and development policies.

HIV/Aids prevention and programmes of harm reduction are a classic example of the INCB being in conflict with other UN bodies. INCB president Philip Emafo has argued that needle exchange is contrary to international narcotics conventions and has openly condemned the harm reduction policy. Yet the needle exchange policies in that have proven to be effective to reducing the spread of HIV among heroin users, have been officially endorsed by UNAids and WHO. While the INCB's zero-tolerance ideology drives drug users underground, the main body of UN agencies argues for exactly the opposite.

This head-on clash between Indigenous peoples and UN drug control officials reflects a crisis of legitimacy for INCB officials and their hardline drugs agenda which is often incompatible with the UN 's promotion of human rights, justice and development.
The international standing of the coca leaf now depends on UN member states. Will they rise to the challenge of mitigating the negative health impact of global drug control treaties, or will fear and timidity prevail in the face of ideological bullying?

[Benga]

thanks for posting this. tough times ahead, as usual.
yet glad to see some journalists are actually doing research instead of following instructions.
much more enlightening on the political tensions underlying coca culture than for instance this article here
http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/sho...d.php?p=389477

b

[stoneinfocus]

What about cocoa which was damned by the church a few hndered years ago, time for a renaisscance, ain´t it? Coffee?
And what about he good `ol alcohol prohibition? *g* the time has come! We can do it! We got the power! *lol*

Do you want totaaaaal sobriety?

Some may ask, what´s taking so long, why aren´t we sober, yet?

I will tell you right now and tell them all: " We will! We will!

Reputation Comments on this post:

enthusiasm is nice, but please try to be a little more constructive in your comments, thx

[x cynic x]

Originally Posted by Lunar Loops

Coca crackdown

Pope John Paul II even drank coca tea on a visit to Bolivia in 1988. Now a UN body wants to ban it.

Maybe this UN body should ask any drinkers of the tea how "fucked up" it got them. Coca leaves and tea really don't seem to have much of a potential for abuse, while the harmless uses are apparent and beneficial.

So cocaine can be considered bad when it's misused, but I really don't see the justifcation behind the argument for banning general coca, other then the classic "its a DRUG, all DRUGS get people hooked, who rob and kill for money to feed their terrible addictions". Use and misuse, it seems that no prohibionist understands the difference between the two. Even so, is it even possible for the raw coca plant to be misused?

"Consuming the raw, unprocessed leaf abets the progression of drug dependence." No credible scientific evidence has been advanced to support this hotly-contested claim.

[Benga]

maintaining the confusion between coca and cocaine use, and / or presenting coca as a source of cocaine *only*, which is far from a reality, is part of the general prohibitionist strategy.

b

[stoneinfocus]

Originally Posted by x cynic x

Maybe this UN body should ask any drinkers of the tea how "fucked up" it got them. Coca leaves and tea really don't seem to have much of a potential for abuse, while the harmless uses are apparent and beneficial.

So cocaine can be considered bad when it's misused, but I really don't see the justifcation behind the argument for banning general coca, other then the classic "its a DRUG, all DRUGS get people hooked, who rob and kill for money to feed their terrible addictions". Use and misuse, it seems that no prohibionist understands the difference between the two. Even so, is it even possible for the raw coca plant to be misused?

"Consuming the raw, unprocessed leaf abets the progression of drug dependence." No credible scientific evidence has been advanced to support this hotly-contested claim.

This is a common warfare startegey against different cultures.Just look at the harm done, and the US and A´s-thank´s Borat) military interventions in South-America and Mexico.

Pope Leopold the xxx-nth even decleared Mariani, the inventor of cocaine-wine, as a benefactor to mankind for inventing it.It was forbidden in his time but the pope got a special permission to drink it to his very end.

Coke is not addictive, not more -and to swim even less than coffee and no-one ever todays comes up with alcohol prohibition ever more(or cigarettes -how about that, would be easier, technically and logistically), when some folks are drinking too much, because they all realized it´s social circumstances which provides drug-abuse in the long run and imho, the lack of alternatives, of more benign drugs, such as coca-leaves and Laudanum and of uncounted other of todays beneficial druginventions by Shulgin et al. ,which all could provide a proper use and prevent addiction by mere diversity and positive impact on drug-use pattern -addiction fromation respectively.

To cut it short, this is a culture-clash, he´s trying to make up and I hope China is going to support its plan in importing coca-tea for his people and enjoy Americs puting pressure on Morales, like it does rigth now in Mexico and has big plans for fighting it´s coke-problem in Mexico, enjoy this being not coverd by the media as the consequences will most likely be wasted tax-dollars in US and A, devestating
economical consequences (like -a bitt off topic, but in fact the same as in Bulgary with its opening to the EU and re-arranging it sworking-structures and economics according to EU sandards and belwo to even come-up with thise, which led to devestation in the incomes etc.) to the poorest of and South America as a whole and maybe some Lukatschenkow-syrings to Eva Morales, who is standing for the Coca-farmers, probably the one or other US and America-sponsored revolt-coup d´état.

oh- and please don´t rep. me negative when swim is making some fun, that´s hard to understand for a non-Hitler fan, but could be understood in this context.^^ *sarcasm-off*

[Alfa]

I wonder why Bolivia and Peru and the Latin-America's do not threaten to leave the UN and end the free trade treaty with the US. Their business relation with China gives them more independence than ever before.

[stoneinfocus]

it would be beneficial, it´s a joke, anyway, as the USA even has its own way of dealing with the UN ... like... forcing its will against that of the UN by military means, if necessary?