Coca - Cocaine overview and links
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 longstanding confusion on the distinction between the coca leaf and its principal derivate cocaine.
Consensus will need to be reached in order to repair this historical error and aim at global respect for this Andean cultural heritage: a plant that does neither harm nor threat humankind in any way, and that could even prove to be a medicine for modern illnesses. The wider range of problems involved in the debate on how to deal with global drugs production and consumption - from sustainable poverty reduction of Andean peasant communities to health threats to some cocaine/ crack users in urban areas around the world- deserves to be treated in its varying contexts and discussed on the basis of scientifically sound arguments. This site tries to contribute to this objective by giving access to publications and documents on this controversial issue in the following sections:
See also the section on coca on the www.ungassondrugs.org site
Coca Myths
Anthony Henman & Pien Metaal
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 17, June 2009
The coca leaf has been used and misused for many ends, each of them suiting different interests and agendas. This 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. Discussion has been stuck for too long at the point where it is now, and - sometime in the near future - political decisions will need to be made on coca’s fate and legal status.
See the online summary
Coca chewing out of the UN convention?
Martin Jelsma, TNI weblog, 21 August 2009
On July 30th the Bolivian proposal to amend the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs by deleting the obligation to abolish the chewingof coca leaf was on the ECOSOC agenda (UN Social and Economic Council). After informal negotiations, the 54 members of ECOSOC decided unanimously to pass the amendment proposal on to the Parties of the Convention for their consideration. They now have 18 months to express any objections or comments on the Bolivian request.
Abolishing Coca Leaf Consumption? The INCB needs to perform a reality check
TNI Press Release, 5 March 2008
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’.
Sending the wrong message
The INCB and the un-scheduling of the coca leaf
Drug Policy Briefing No. 21, March 2007
The 2006 International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) report emitted a clear signal to the governments of Bolivia, Peru and Argentina that growing and using coca leaf is in conflict with international treaties, particularly the 1961 Single Convention. The INCB, rather than making harsh judgements based on a selective choice of outdated treaty articles, should use its mandate more constructively and help draw attention to the inherent contradictions in the current treaty system with regard to how plants, plant-based raw materials and traditional uses are treated.
PDF Document
Coca Yes, Cocaine No?
Legal Options for the Coca Leaf
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 13, May 2006
A simple leaf of an ancient plant will feature prominently on the international agenda this year. As international relations and specialised mechanisms for managing the international drugs trade have evolved, a decade-old demand to remove the coca leaf from strict international drugs controls has come to the fore again in recent months. Time has come to repair an historical error responsible for including the leaf amongst the most hazardous classified substances. This issue of Drugs and Conflict explains the motives, context and range of this petition, as well as the procedures that need to be followed to reach this objective.
PDF Document
TNI Press Release Coca Yes, Cocaine No? Legal Options for the Coca Leaf, May 9, 2006
In the press: Changing the Drug War Debate, by Kelly Hearn (AlterNet, January 26, 2006)
The Transnational Institute, a think tank based in the Netherlands, says a key scientific report that shaped coca's legal classification was flawed and needs updating to incorporate recent science.
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. The rationale for including the coca leaf in the 1961 Single Convention is mainly rooted in a report requested of the United Nations by the permanent representative of Peru that was prepared by a commission that visited Bolivia and Peru briefly in 1949. In this section you will find part of the original report (which is now almost impossible to find) and an overview of the discussions in the UN bodies on the coca issue.
- Commission of Inquiry on the Coca Leaf Bulletin on Narcotics - 1949 Issue 1 - 005 Abstract: At the beginning of September this year the United Nations dispatched a Commission of Enquiry to South America to study certain aspects of two uses to which the leaf of the coca bush is put.
- Commission of Inquiry on the Coca Leaf Bulletin on Narcotics - 1950 Issue 4 - 004 Abstract: At the request of the Government of Peru, then of the Government of Bolivia, the United Nations sent, during the autumn of 1949, to these countries, a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the effects of chewing the coca leaf and the possibilities of limiting its production and controlling its distribution (see Bulletin on Narcotics, vol. I, no. 1, October 1949). The Commission and its secretariat left New York on 10 September 1949 and returned on 4 December 1949. Its report was completed in May 1950: two parts of this report are hereby reproduced, namely, the methods of work of the Commission, and its conclusions and recommendations.
- Coca Chewing, Geography and Nutrition Bulletin on Narcotics - 1950 Issue 4 - 001 Abstract: Coca-leaf chewing, or "coqueo" as it is called, is related to a wide diversity of factors: social, economic, biopsychological, cultural, geographical, nutritional, etc. In this paper, climate altitude and nutrition will be considered. It is a widely held opinion that because of these three factors coca-leaf chewing can to a great extent be regarded as a necessity in some parts of South America. The purpose of this paper is to inquire whether the generalization is correct or not. The three closely interrelated factors are studied in the light of social, economic and cultural factors, as well as to strictly geographical and nutritional considerations, since geography and nutrition are closely related to various social, economic and cultural factors and vice versa.
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. The most important recommendation holds that: "WHO/PSA should investigate the therapeutic benefits of coca leaf" and a broader statement on researching the impact on health at individual and population levels of different legislation and drug control measures. However, a decision in the World Health Assembly banned the publication of the study. The US representative threatened that "if WHO activities relating to drugs failed to reinforce proven drug control approaches, funds for the relevant programmes should be curtailed". This led to the decision to discontinue publication. In the short article WHO: 'Six Horsemen ride out' there is more information on this case. A part of the study has been recuperated and is now available on the TNI's Drugs & Democracy website. We feel this information is valid, important and needs to be available in the public domain:
Cocaine base paste (PBC) in the Southern Cone of Latin America
‘Paco’ Under ScrutinyThe cocaine base paste market in the Southern Cone Drugs and Conflict Debate paper 14, October 2006 Based on two studies carried out in the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo and additional research in Brazil, this report examines the origin, characteristics and impact of the explosive increase in consumption of cocaine base paste and crack in urban areas. The question of whether there is a cause-and effect relationship between the explosive increase in consumption in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil and a transformation in the structure of cocaine trafficking in Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil is relevant to an evaluation of the success of failure of policies implemented in the Andean Region to stem the supply of cocaine. In the press:
TNI publications on coca and the cocalero movement
Coca or Death?
Cocalero Movements in Peru and Bolivia
TNI Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 10, April 2004
This issue of Drugs and Conflict analyses cocalero peasant organisations in Peru and Bolivia and their interaction with successive governments during the peasant mobilisations of recent years. The achievements and failures of such negotiations expose the difficulty in finding peaceful and sustainable solutions to an issue as intricate as the cultivation of coca leaf.
Broken Promises and Coca Eradication in Peru
TNI Drug Policy Briefing 11, March 2005
The forced crop eradication policy implemented by the Peruvian government over the past 25 years has failed. The official strategy has exacerbated social conflicts; contributed to various types of subversive violence; jeopardized local economies, also affecting the national economy; and destroyed forests as crops have become more scattered. Worst of all, it has not resolved any of the underlying causes of drug trafficking, such as poverty, marginalisation and government neglect.
Super Coca?
TNI Drug Policy Briefing 8, September 2004
Apparently a coca plant was found in Colombia's Sierra Nevada that had a high cocaine content and a higher level of purity, and which was also resistant to the effects of aerial spraying. The content of the report is so absurd that it appears to be a bad joke. Or is there something more behind it?
Coca, Cocaine and the International Conventions
TNI Drug Policy Briefing 5, April 2003
It is no understatement to claim that there are few plants subject to such tensions as the coca leaf, either in legal and political circuits, or in the medical and anthropological academic world. Before, during and after its inclusion in the number 1 list of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, the controversy on whether the coca leaf is or is not to be considered a narcotic drug, worthy of control by the international institutions and mechanisms, reached apparent irreconcilable positions.