U.S. Renews Anachronistic Campaign to Stamp Out Coca Leaf Chewing

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. Renews Anachronistic Campaign to Stamp Out Coca Leaf Chewing
By Coletta Youngers, January 14, 2011

Just one month after President Obama announced that the U.S. would finally sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, U.S. officials are already violating the spirit – and the letter – of the agreement. U.S. officials are playing a lead role in maintaining an out-dated provision in the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs which attempts to abolish the centuries-old indigenous practice of chewing coca leaves. The 1961 Convention also mistakenly classified coca as a narcotic, along with cocaine.

In 2009, the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, sent a letter to Ban Ki Moon requesting a minor amendment to the Single Convention by removing its demand that “coca leaf chewing must be abolished” within a 25 year period (which ended in 1989). Bolivia asked that the ban on coca leaf chewing be removed in countries where the tradition is still widely practiced, while maintaining the international prohibition on cocaine. The 18 month period for countries to register formal objections to Bolivia’s requested amendment ends on January 31, 2011. Without objections, Bolivia’s request would have been immediately granted.

Coca is an integral part of indigenous cultures in the Andes. Chewing coca leaves and drinking coca tea help alleviate the symptoms of high altitudes, cold and hunger, and they function as a mild stimulant. The coca leaf is also used in traditional and religious ceremonies such as weddings. Coca chewing is also becoming increasingly popular in urban areas of Bolivia and in northern Argentina. Indeed, for years I was regularly served coca tea when visiting the U.S. Embassy in La Paz. But ironically, the U.S. also says drinking coca tea is an international crime.

The inclusion of a ban on coca leaf chewing in the Single Convention was, to be perfectly blunt, racist. It was based on a 1950 Report of the Commission of Enquiry on the Coca Leaf, which was later sharply criticized for its poor methodology, racist connotations, and cultural insensitivity. All subsequent studies have concluded that the traditional consumption of coca leaves appears to have no negative health effects and has positive therapeutic, sacred and social functions for indigenous Andean populations.

More:
http://www.fpif.org/blog/us_renews_anachronistic_campaign_to_stamp_out_coca_leaf_chewing?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FPIF+%28Foreign+Policy+In+Focus+%28All+News%29%29

[Forkboy]

1. Can't these fuckers just drink Jolt like the rest of us?

;)

[knowbody0]

2. there are no Jolt bushes there

[Forkboy]

3. Well what kind of a country is this, anyways?

;)

[Richard Steele]

5. DAmmit ForkBoy, you know I hate it when you read my fucking mind!

And yet you keep doing it, and POSTING what I'm thinking.
You magnificent bastard.

Oh well- at least you're saving me all the time
it would take me to post these things myself every day.

So, given how slowly I type,
that's alot more time for me to sit here drinking beer.

You're doing the LORD'S work, Forkboy- don't you ever let anyone stop you!

[Richard D]

4. It's pretty much the equivalent . . .

. . . of trying to ban the Host in a Catholic mass.

[ixion]

6. End the so-called 'war' on (some) drugs, and stop the madness.

'nuff said