Vienna, (EFE).- Bolivia announced during a UN meeting on drugs that it will initiate a procedure to end the international prohibition of the coca leaf, which has important traditional uses for the Andean peoples.
“In 1961, a historic mistake was made,” Bolivian Vice President David Choquehuanca told the Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting this week in Vienna, recalling the year in which the Convention on drugs that prohibits the coca leaf was approved.
The vice president explained in a subsequent press conference that his country will use its right as a signatory to international treaties to ask the World Health Organization (WHO) for a “critical review” of the properties of the coca leaf.
The coca leaf is found in Schedule I of the Single Convention of 1961, where the most dangerous substances are located and under stricter international control, such as heroin and cocaine, among others.
“The ritual use of the coca leaf is not drug addiction,” said the Bolivian vice president, who criticized what he called “six decades of discrimination and colonization” for the prohibition of the coca leaf.
“When the laws are inefficient, justice is unfair,” said Choquehuanca, who indicated that in the “next few weeks” his country will begin the legal process by writing a letter to the UN Secretary General, António Guterres.
The WHO experts must then prepare a report studying the properties, toxicology and harmful effects of coca, which will take at least a year, and then they will direct a recommendation to the 53 countries of the Commission, which can adopt it or submit it to a vote. .
The WHO recommendation may consist of maintaining the current international control, eliminating it, or placing the coca leaf on another of the less strict lists of substances under international control.
At the earliest, the decision on the coca leaf will be voted on – by simple majority – in the Commission on Narcotic Drugs at the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025.
Choqueahuanca was confident that the WHO scientific study would allow the “declassification” of the coca leaf as a substance under international control.
“We are convinced, in light of scientific studies, in light of the truth, that the coca leaf should not be on Schedule I. The world needs to know the truth based on science,” he stressed.
Colombia had already announced that it supports Bolivia’s initiative, and some diplomatic sources have explained to EFE that the WHO study and its recommendations will be crucial to obtain the support of other states.
Bolivia has achieved several national reservations and exceptions on the use of the coca leaf, including the traditional chewing, but has so far made no attempt to change the global ban.
In Bolivia, the cultivation of up to 22,500 hectares of coca for traditional consumption, whether chewed or infusions, is legal, and more than 100,000 families depend on this crop.
The vice president stressed on several occasions that the coca leaf is not cocaine and that his country is fully committed to fighting drug trafficking.
The Bolivian government has been complaining for years that the restrictions imposed by the treaties hinder the potential international market for coca leaf products and their derivatives, which would benefit the communities that depend on their cultivation.
“We, as ancient peoples, have the right to export, to market, to industrialize the sacred coca leaf,” concluded the vice president.