LET ME CHEW MY COCA LEAVES

THIS week in Vienna, a meeting of the United Nations Commission on
Narcotic Drugs took place that will help shape international antidrug
efforts for the next 10 years. I attended the meeting to reaffirm
Bolivia's commitment to this struggle but also to call for the
reversal of a mistake made 48 years ago.

In 1961, the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs
placed the coca leaf in the same category with cocaine — thus
promoting the false notion that the coca leaf is a narcotic — and
ordered that "coca leaf chewing must be abolished within 25 years
from the coming into force of this convention." Bolivia signed the
convention in 1976, during the brutal dictatorship of Col. Hugo
Banzer, and the 25-year deadline expired in 2001.

So for the past eight years, the millions of us who maintain the
traditional practice of chewing coca have been, according to the
convention, criminals who violate international law. This is an
unacceptable and absurd state of affairs for Bolivians and other
Andean peoples.

Many plants have small quantities of various chemical compounds
called alkaloids. One common alkaloid is caffeine, which is found in
more than 50 varieties of plants, from coffee to cacao, and even in
the flowers of orange and lemon trees. Excessive use of caffeine can
cause nervousness, elevated pulse, insomnia and other unwanted effects.

Another common alkaloid is nicotine, found in the tobacco plant. Its
consumption can lead to addiction, high blood pressure and cancer;
smoking causes one in five deaths in the United States. Some
alkaloids have important medicinal qualities. Quinine, for example,
the first known treatment for malaria, was discovered by the Quechua
Indians of Peru in the bark of the cinchona tree.

The coca leaf also has alkaloids; the one that concerns antidrug
officials is the cocaine alkaloid, which amounts to less than
one-tenth of a percent of the leaf. But as the above examples show,
that a plant, leaf or flower contains a minimal amount of alkaloids
does not make it a narcotic. To be made into a narcotic, alkaloids
must typically be extracted, concentrated and in many cases processed
chemically. What is absurd about the 1961 convention is that it
considers the coca leaf in its natural, unaltered state to be a
narcotic. The paste or the concentrate that is extracted from the
coca leaf, commonly known as cocaine, is indeed a narcotic, but the
plant itself is not.

Why is Bolivia so concerned with the coca leaf? Because it is an
important symbol of the history and identity of the indigenous
cultures of the Andes.

The custom of chewing coca leaves has existed in the Andean region of
South America since at least 3000 B.C. It helps mitigate the
sensation of hunger, offers energy during long days of labor and
helps counter altitude sickness. Unlike nicotine or caffeine, it
causes no harm to human health nor addiction or altered state, and it
is effective in the struggle against obesity, a major problem in many
modern societies.

Today, millions of people chew coca in Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and
northern Argentina and Chile. The coca leaf continues to have ritual,
religious and cultural significance that transcends indigenous
cultures and encompasses the mestizo population.

Mistakes are an unavoidable part of human history, but sometimes we
have the opportunity to correct them. It is time for the
international community to reverse its misguided policy toward the coca leaf.