MORALES HAS NEW DRUG-FIGHTING STRATEGY

WASHINGTON -- If Bolivian President Evo Morales has his way, you may
find yourself soon ordering a cup of mate de coca instead of your
morning cappuccino at your favorite cafe.

Morales wants to give thousands of Bolivian coca growers access to
new markets. He envisions an expanded use for coca as an ingredient
in beverages, chewing gum, toothpaste and as a food-flavoring agent.
Traditionally, the leaf has been used in the Andean region to stave
off hunger, cold and fatigue as well as for medicinal and sacred
practices. More recently, the illegal drug trade has transformed coca
into the lucrative drug cocaine.

Morales' plan is the second of a two-pillared drug-fighting strategy.
The first is the continuation of conventional methods of cocaine
interdiction as well as the crackdown on drug traffickers, money
laundering and the importation of chemicals used to make cocaine.
Bolivian officials say that some of those conventional efforts
already have yielded greater results than in years past.

The second pillar, the so-called revalorization of the coca leaf, is
the problem. Since the 1961 U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs,
coca itself has been classified as an illegal substance as harmful as
cocaine or heroin. Morales and many others see this classification as
a historical error that needs to be corrected.

"Coca is not cocaine," Morales told the European Parliament last
week. How can it be possible, he asked, "that coca is legal for
Coca-Cola but it isn't for native peoples and peasants?" Under a
special exception in the 1961 Convention, the use of coca leaves as a
flavoring agent without their alkaloid component is permissible, an
exception that Coca-Cola continues to take advantage of.

Bolivian officials brought a similar message to Washington recently.
During a meeting of the Organization of American States'
Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission, Mauricio Dorfler
Ocampo, Bolivia's vice minister for foreign affairs, asked the
international community to distinguish between the leaf's legal and
illegal uses. He also asked for a change of coca's status in
international conventions in order to help his government provide
coca growers with viable alternatives to make a living.

So far their request has been received with skepticism on both sides
of the Atlantic. Officials fear that legitimizing the leaf will
undermine the overall drug war. It would also be a symbolic defeat,
as Bolivia would surely rise in the ranks of top coca producers after
recent and highly praised reductions.

In Washington, officials believe production is increasing already.
Anne Patterson, assistant secretary for international narcotics and
law enforcement affairs, says Morales' commitment to coca eradication
is "lackluster." On a recent visit to La Paz, she told Bolivian
officials that current eradication rates are now half of what they
were in 2005.

Officials from other countries in the Americas also have expressed
concerns that Morales' plans would mostly favor illegal drug
trafficking. Specifically, they fear a worsening of its corrosive
effects in their own streets -- where gun-related violence fueled by
the cocaine trade is on the rise as this week's Sao Paulo killings
demonstrated.

Under current Bolivian law, cocaleros can legally grow up to 12,000
hectares for traditional domestic consumption, namely coca tea and
coca chewing. The European Union has agreed to fund a study to
determine a more accurate measurement. Morales sees the study as an
opportunity to ensure that the 12,000 figure will increase.

One might say that by arguing that more cultivation is needed,
Morales already is recognizing defeat in efforts to stem the supply
of coca leaves for the illegal market. Also, it seems naive to think
that encouraging coca growers to produce crops for products yet to be
marketed would be any more successful than crop substitution has been
for overall reduction of illicit use of coca. Meanwhile, drug
traffickers, with their highly sophisticated means for developing and
delivering their product worldwide, would be the first to profit from
increased production.

Morales embodies a fundamental change of power in Bolivia that, as he
likes to proclaim, is putting the country in the hands of its
rightful owners, the indigenous majority. As part of that change,
Morales is expected to assert control over the lands and resources of
his ancestors. Morales already has nationalized the hydrocarbon
industry. For coca, he wants to develop alternative products.

Yet, the former leader of a coca growers association has a way to go
in convincing the international community that his plan is a novel
approach to combat drugs by promoting alternative uses rather than
continuing attacks on indigenous coca suppliers.