Erythroxylum Coca Los Confundidos

12 March 2026

The international ban on the coca leaf has long been debated without the meaningful participation of the communities who have lived with the plant for generations. The documentary “Erythroxylum Coca. The Confused,” presented in Vienna during the 69th United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), focuses on the voices of indigenous and peasant communities in Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia.

Vienna, March 12, 2026.

The voices of communities linked to the traditional consumption of coca leaves in Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia reach the United Nations with the premiere of the short documentary Erythroxylum Coca. Los Confundidos (The Confused)

The production premiered on Thursday, March 12, at 1:00 p.m. (CET) in Vienna, Austria, during a side event entitled “Civil society responds to the continued prohibition of coca leaf.” It features testimonies and reflections from peasant and indigenous communities, as well as producers and consumers of coca leaf in its natural state.

The documentary is a response to the critical review by the World Health Organization's Expert Committee on Drug Dependence, published in December 2025, which recommended that coca leaf should remain on Schedule I of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The film documents different landscapes and practices related to the plant in regions such as Los Yungas and Cochabamba (Bolivia), Quillabamba and the VRAEM (Peru), and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Cauca (Colombia).

Through community stories and testimonies in territories historically linked to cultivation, the traditional, cultural, and ancestral uses of the coca leaf in the Andean countries are vindicated. The film also sends a message to international organizations about the decision to keep the plant under the strictest levels of international control.

The documentary's premiere comes at a key moment in the international debate on drug policy, coinciding with the 69th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the main global decision-making body on this issue. The documentary seeks to provide a perspective often absent from global debates: that of the peoples who have used this plant for centuries as part of their cultural, medicinal, and spiritual lives.