Coca

The coca-cocaine issue has gained momentum by the ascending of a peasant leader to the presidency in Bolivia, who announced making a case for the de-scheduling of the coca leaf from it's current classification as a dangerous narcotic drug in the international drug control conventions. Time has come to clarify long standing confusion on the distinction between the coca leaf and its principal derivative cocaine.

Between Reality and Abstraction

March 2013
Nr. 39 - 
Hugo Cabieses
Pien Metaal
Mirella van Dun

At the International Conference on Alter­native Development (ICAD), held 15-16 November 2012 in Lima, the Peruvian Government continued to insist on the relevance of “Alternative Development (AD),” with particular emphasis on the so-called San Martín “miracle” or “model.”

Bolivia wins a rightful victory on the coca leaf

January 2013

Today the Plurinational State of Bolivia can celebrate a rightful victory, as the country can become formally a party again to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, without being bound by its unjust and unrealistic requirement that “coca leaf chewing must be abolished.”

Correcting a historical error

January 2011

In 2009, the Bolivian government requested that the United Nations amend the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The proposed amendment would remove the unjustified ban on coca leaf chewing while maintaining the strict global control system for coca cultivation and cocaine. The 18-month period to contest Bolivia’s requested amendment ends January 31, 2011.

The WHO cocaine project

February 2010
TNI

In 1995 the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) announced in a press release the publication of the results of the largest global study on cocaine use ever undertaken.

History: UN and Coca

February 2010
TNI

In 1961 the coca leaf was listed on Schedule I of the UN Single
Convention on Narcotic Drugs together with cocaine and heroin. The
inclusion of coca has caused much harm to the Andean region and a
historical correction is long overdue, for the sake of further conflict
prevention and out of respect for the Andean culture.

Coca Myths

June 2009
Nr. 17 - 
Pien Metaal
Anthony Henman

The present issue of Drugs & Conflict intends to debunk and disentangle the most prominent myths surrounding the coca leaf. It aims to clear the air and help steer the debate towards a more evidence-based judgement of the issues.

Towards a world market for coca leaf?

June 2009
TNI
Pien Metaal

When we think of people like Pope Paul VI, the Queen of Spain or Britain’s Princess Anne, most of us do not think of them as criminals. But that is what they are, under the current international drug law. Their crime? They all sipped coca tea on their arrival to the Bolivian capital La Paz. Bolivia is planning to submit a formal request to the UN to declassify coca as a narcotic drug, emphasizing in its arguments the traditional uses, such as the chewing of the leaf.

Abolishing Coca Leaf Consumption?

March 2008
TNI
The Transnational Institute condemns the decision by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) in their 2007 annual report released today, which calls on countries to ‘abolish or prohibit coca leaf chewing and the manufacture of coca tea’.

 

Colombia coca cultivation survey results

June 2007
Nr. 22 - 
Drugs and Democracy

Despite 2006 witnessing the most intensive use of fumigation in the country’s history, some 157,200 hectares of cultivation areas were detected, 13,200 hectares more than in 2005. Is the fumigation strategy failing?

The politicisation of fumigations

February 2007
Nr. 20 - 
Drugs and Democracy

The insistence on fumigation, despite its undeniable failure in practice, is a sign that fumigation involves interests that go beyond antinarcotics and represent what are essentially political interests, to justify the US military and law enforcement presence in such a sensitive region.