Morales Pushes for Legalization of Coca
For centuries, coca has been used in Bolivia for its medicinal purposes and its ability to reduce hunger. It is used in religious ceremonies and used in products such as teas, cookies, soap, shampoo and toothpaste.
“Coca leaves aren’t cocaine, they don’t harm your health, don’t have any psychological effects and aren’t addictive,” said Morales.
The coca leaf was categorized as a narcotic by the United Nations at the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which called for cultivation of the leaf to be abolished within 25 years. In 1988, Bolivia passed laws that set strict limits on coca farming and worked with the United States to eradicate illegal farms.
With coca production increasing and the DEA no longer there to police the drug trade, many experts fear that the exportation of cocaine from Bolivia—the world’s third-largest cocaine producer behind Colombia and Peru—will increase dramatically. In the first two months of 2009, Bolivian narcotics operations have seized three times more cocaine than during the first two months of last year.
Though the rise may be a result of improved policing, many believe that it is indicative of increased cocaine production. Cristina Albertin, head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Bolivia, told Reuters, “What we’ve seen in the past years is that drug trafficking has spread in Bolivia … the processing of coca into drugs is taking place all over the country.”