The Coca Leaf: Everyone's Talking About It

Despite its prohibition during the last half century, the coca leaf is still chewed by Andean indigenous populations, who have been consuming the plant's nutrients for the past 5,000 years. The defense of this ancestral tradition has been espoused by Bolivian diplomats, who are pushing an intense international campaign before the United Nations to amend Article 49 of the Convention of 1961 and recognize the legitimacy of the coca leaf.

After hearing formal objections from the United States, Sweden and Great Britain, the UN postponed making a final decision last week and is now expected to rule on the practice's legality on February 18.

Bolivian officials have already said that if the UN rejects the appeal made 18 months ago by President Evo Morales, it will convene and international conference on acullico, the Amayra word for coca-chewing, something protected as cultural patrimony by Bolivia's 1999 constitution.

While the Obama administration objected to Evo Morales' appeal, the U.S. embassy in Bolivia released a statement affirming that it respected the Bolivian custom but that it did not support the proposal to amend the 1961 Convention. One curious side note: the U.S. State Department's Web site advises travelers to Bolivia to drink coca tea to mitigate the effects of the altitude.

A Question of Rights

In an interview with Comunidade Segura, Pablo Solón, the Bolivian ambassador to the UN, said that the U.S.'s ambiguous position left much to be explained. "If the U.S. recognizes chewing coca as a legitimate indigenous tradition that has nothing to do with drug addiction, it's absurd not to correct the error in the Convention that prohibits chewing coca," he said. The U.S.'s objection to the amendment is based on the argument that Bolivia's appeal would affect the integrity of the international agreement. Solón, however, assures that "...this is incorrect; we're not asking for the coca leaf to be taken off the Convention's controlled substance list. We're asking it to be taken off Article 49, which calls for its elimination."

Arguments in favor of the Bolivian cause are gaining strength in the same international forum that calls for the end to acullico: the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that "Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, its traditional wisdom and expressions of cultural traditions."

While the road is long, Bolivia has gained important support its campaign to legitimize a tradition that is central to the identity to a country whose population is 60% indigenous. Three weeks ago, the diplomatic campaign persuaded the governments of Macedonia, Egypt and Colombia not to join the U.S. camp. Two important Washington-based organizations, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and the Andean Information Network (AIN), both supported by 200 organizations and individuals, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, asking for the immediate removal of the objection.

"An end to opposition to Bolivia's proposal would be welcomed in the region like a concrete signal of U.S. support for indigenous rights, and the disposition to work collaboratively and on equal footing with Andean nations on drug control policy," said John Walsh, a coordinator for WOLA.

Question of Health

When the UN included the coca leaf in its list of toxic substances the mid-20th century, it was based on the concept of addiction released by the Investigative Commission of the Coca Leaf in 1949, says Pienn Metal, a researcher with the Transnational Institute, who said, "When he got to Lima in September 1949, the Commission's coordinator, Howard B. Fonda, gave an interview before beginning his work in which he said, 'we believe that the daily use of coca through chewing... is not only very harmful, but is also the cause of racial degeneration in many populations, and of the decadence that many indigenous—and even mestizo—visibly exhibit in certain areas of Peru and Bolivia. Our studies confirm our affirmations an we hope to be able to present a rational plan of action... to achieve the complete abolition of this harmful habit," writes Pienn.

When Bolivia ratified the Convention, explains Amb. Solón, discriminatory practices toward the country's indigenous were the norm, and it was the dictatorship of Gen. Hugo Banzer that signed the agreement without passing it through the parliament.

Today, several scientific studies demonstrate that not only is chewing coca leaves not harmful, but on the contrary, it is beneficial for an array of illnesses and is efficient in the reduction of fatigue caused by long workdays in high altitude.

One of these reports is from the World Health Organization and part of it was published at the end of the 1990s. In the report, researchers argue that the use of the coca leaf in these communities is beneficial to health, social cohesion and that its benefits should be more widely explored.

"The problem is that, when became clear that the results didn't support the current drug policy, the report went through several revisions that prevented it from going public," said Solón. "It's something that country's don't want to recognize."

One of the most learned scholars on the benefits of coca is Reynaldo Molina Salvatierra, the head coordinator of the Program of Social Support for Coca Leaf Production, financed by the European Union.

"Coca is one of the most nutritious plants in the world. It's rich in essential amino acids, vitamins and alkaloids, among them ecognine, which has a property that metabolizes uric acid and cholesterol. Coca helps to combat fatigue, arthritis, gout, sciatica and countless other illnesses," says Molina, author of La Hoja Increíble (The Incredible Leaf) which will be republished soon as La Hoja Invencible (The Invincible Leaf). The coca plant contains 14 alkaloids and cocaine makes up less than 1 percent of its composition. Only after adding large quantities of this alkaloid with chemicals like ether, acetone and hydrochloric acid, can one obtain cocaine.

Social Control

In reality, traditional use of coca continues in Bolivia, and to a lesser extent in Peru and Colombia, despite the Convention. But this challenge, underlined by the historic image of Evo Morales chewing coca at the UN, doesn't mean that the Bolivian government isn't complying with the fight against narco-trafficking.

According to Amb. Solón, "Evo's government doesn't share the idea of having an unlimited source of coca. This has to be limited to traditional consumption, and for that, they have developed mechanisms to control coca chewing. These mechanisms have allowed the government to reduce and control the coca leaf, and even eradicate crops that might have been cultivated for narco-trafficking. We're talking about 4,000 hectares eradicated last year and Bolivia's agreement to continue to reduce its cultivation."

Reynaldo Molina explains that the Program to Support Coca Leaf Production Control works to determine the number of harvests and cultivators in Bolivia and "to do that, we need to create a digital registry of coca leaf producers, including digital mapping.

The work began in August 2008 with the collection of information, and in 2010 there will be a complete tally of the cultivation areas, number of cultivators and information on each of them.

Today there are 30,400 hectares of coca leaf in Bolivia, which constitutes 19% of the world's area in coca production. "Of these 30,400 hectares, the current law establishes that 12,000 hectares be used for traditional means," explains Amb. Solón, who clarifies that the information that Social Control has presented for next year will help bring researchers up to date.

Bolivian physician Godo Reinicke, a member of AIN and former public defender in Chapare between 1997 and 2004, explains that it's difficult to calculate the exact number of Bolivians who chew coca. "There are estimates taken from segments of the population, like the rural/agrarian sector who chew every day in order to have the energy to work in the fields, the factory worker, and others who work in transportation and the service industry that use the coca leaf. The urban population in the formal sector (students, merchants, union leaders) and other who use the leaf for religious rituals."

As Molina says, a grape is one thing, wine is another.  Barley is one thing, beer is another. Despite the obvious comparison, it has taken the world 50 years to accept that coca is one thing, and cocaine is another. For the moment, this fundamental battle is stalled indefinitely. Bolivian diplomacy is concentrated now on February 18, when the UN decides whether or not to legitimize the coca leaf.

Translation: Danielle Renwick