COCAINE'S OTHER VICTIMS

Princess Anne had some. So did the pope, And so did the king and queen of
Spain. Mat de coca, that is or coca tea. It is recommended for anyone
arriving at the high altitude of La Paz, the capital of Bolivia and a city
perched at the same height as Mt. Everest's base camp.

The tea comes in bags in a variety of brand names and is credited with
warding off the side effects of altitude sickness. It tastes nice, too.
Most embassies in La Pat serve it to guests, although it is banned in the
American embassy. Traces of the drink would register on drug-testing
equipment because coca tea, like cocaine, uses the coca leaf as its raw
ingredient. This is the link that imperils the future of the coca crop.

In early June, the United Nations General Assembly will hold a special
session on a world drug strategy. It will discuss stricter drug-control
measures, money laundering, and reducing demands. But, crucially for
Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia, it will hear a call for the elimination of the
coca bush and the opium poppy within 10 years. [The General Assembly
endorsed the proposal on June 10. -WPR]

The Bolivian government, encouraged by the U.S., has already embarked on a
policy of elimination by 2002 of all illicit coca fields--fields not
licensed to produce coca solely for traditional uses, including coca tea.
The UN plan would go further in that it essentially calls for total
elimination of a crop that has been part of Andean culture for centuries.

A popular song in Bolivia is "La Coca No Es la Cocaina" (The Coca Leaf
Isn't Cocaine). And in an effort to explain this to visitors to the
country, a coca museum has just opened its doors. The Incas and then the
Spanish discovered hundreds of years ago that the coca leaf was a stimulant
that gave stamina to manual workers and travelers and thus became part of
the social fabric of Andean life. Then, in 1886, Frank Robinson gave an
inspired name to a soft drink that combined coca leaves, the cola nut, and
gas. Soon the coca leaf had indirectly become, through Coca Cola, part of
the social fabric of the U.S. and the world. It was not until 1914 that the
narcotic element of Coca-Cola was removed from the drink, but more than 180
tons of coca leaf still go to the U.S. every year on license for use in
flavoring the world's most popular fizzy beverage. While all this can be
examined in a civilized way at the museum, what has been happening in
Bolivia and elsewhere in Latin America where the coca leaf is grown is more
complex and alarming.

Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia are essentially under orders from the North to
destroy all crops, or at least all crops not currently excluded for
traditional uses. Since Bolivia is estimated to produce a quarter of the
world's coca leaf and about 30 percent of its cocaine, it is inevitable
that there will be further pressure on the country to reduce even the
licensed crops.

The Bolivian government's current strategy, entitled With Dignity, includes
moving more than 10,000 families out of the main coca-growing region and
assisting them in alternative crop production. In this strategy, they have
the backing of the UN, the US., and the European Union.

All of which is of not much comfort to the likes of Inez Morales and her
husband, Uriano, whose tiny coca crop in Chapar, three hours from
Cochabamba in Bolivia, has just been destroyed by troops. As a speechless
Uriano twists his battered hat in his hands, Inez says that her entire
livelihood has been destroyed in the 10 minutes or so it took a band of
fresh-faced troops to swing their machetes through her crops.

Inez is typical of many of the coca growers who have not grown rich through
the association with cocaine but who have made a living from the crop after
the collapse of the Bolivian tin industry in the mid-1980s and the
subsequent flight to the coca fields for survival. The cocaleros (coca
farmers) claim that 10 people have died in clashes over the elimination
policy, though the government claims this figure is exaggerated.

Evo Morales, a young member of congress and a spokesman for the cocaleros,
says: "They are not only taking our coca, they are taking our land. They
want us out of here so that foreign mineral companies can move in."

Is there a solution? Ken Bluestone, of the Catholic Institute for
International Relations, has worked in the area for years and argues that
the legitimate uses of coca--in tea, toothpaste, and medicines--should be
exploited. This would allow the farmers and their families to re-main and
lead productive lives. On the other hand, Marie Elisa Martinic, of the UN
Drug Control Program, says its officials are dubious that there is really a
market for alternative use of the coca leaf that could in any significant
way take the place of cocaine production. They argue for a different form
of alternative production--bananas, pineapples, palm hearts, yucca, and
other legal plants--and for compensation for the cocaleros who have to
abandon their fields.

But the UN's decision could lead to the end of a way of life for thousands
of people.

Checked-by: Richard Lake