THE COCA LEAF

Storm in an Andean Teacup

A Battle Over Mastication

TOURISTS who visit Bolivia's capital, La Paz, or Cusco, Peru's former
Inca seat, are routinely given welcome cups of coca tea to mitigate
soroche (altitude sickness). For centuries, people who live in the
high Andes have chewed coca leaves, whose alkaloids act as a mild
stimulant and help to ward off cold and hunger. The Spanish
conquistadors declared coca a tool of the devil, until they saw how
it improved the work rate of the Indians they sent down the mines.

But refine the alkaloids in coca, and you get cocaine. In 1961 a
United Nations convention on narcotics banned the leaves, giving
countries 25 years to outlaw this ancestral practice. Half a century
on, consuming coca remains legal in Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and some
parts of Colombia, in defiance of the convention. In Bolivia and
Peru, some cultivation is legal too. In 2009 Bolivia, where a new
constitution protects coca as part of the country's cultural
heritage, proposed an amendment to the convention that would remove
the obligation to prohibit traditional uses of coca. Other South
American countries agree.

The amendment would have passed if no objections were raised by the
end of this month. But this week the United States spoke up, probably
scuppering the change. The European Union (at Britain's behest) may
follow. They argue that tolerating the use of coca harms efforts to
suppress cocaine. Bolivia insists it would continue to fight cocaine
and limit coca cultivation. But cultivation in Bolivia and Peru has
long outstripped traditional use, and is rising sharply.

Yet this smacks of hypocrisy. The United States' State Department's
website recommends coca tea for altitude sickness, and its La Paz
embassy has been known to serve it to visitors. The UN's declaration
on indigenous peoples, which the United States endorsed last month,
guarantees the protection of "cultural heritage, traditional
knowledge and traditional cultural expressions".

"It's clear to me that some people there [in the State Department]
realise it's senseless to continue the war on drugs," says Fernando
Henrique Cardoso, a former president of Brazil who wants marijuana
decriminalised and is chairing a commission on drug policy worldwide.

But the drug warriors in the American administration seem to have
prevailed over the diplomats. Bolivia is considering pulling out of
the convention if its modest proposal is struck down. The State
Department has been trying to repair ties with Bolivia's socialist
government since a spat in 2008 in which ambassadors were expelled.
But all too often American policy towards Latin America has been
dominated by drugs.