- Title: BOLIVIA: Bolivia's withdrawal from key drugs convention set to go into effect.
- Date: 14th December 2011
- Summary: LA PAZ, BOLIVIA (DECEMBER 5, 2011) (REUTERS) **CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY** GENERAL VIEW OF BOLIVIA'S MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEFENCE BOLIVIA'S SOCIAL DEFENCE DEPUTY MINISTER FELIPE CACERES IN NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) BOLIVIA'S SOCIAL DEFENCE DEPUTY MINISTER FELIPE CACERES, SAYING: "We have accomplished our annual plan of eradicating 10,051 hectares of illegal
- Embargoed: 29th December 2011 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Bolivia, Plurinational State Of
- Country: Bolivia
- Topics: Economy
- Reuters ID: LVA9ACXHQFVU48V2KVL5X7OV7MGN
- Story Text: Bolivia's participation in the a key United Nations convention on drugs will end January 1, 2012 in a protest over the classification of coca leaves as an illegal drug.
Bolivia's move to quit a United Nations' Convention that bans consumption of narcotics because of controversy over the centuries-old Andean tradition of chewing coca leaves will become effective January 1, 2012.
Bolivian officials made the decision after a request to decriminalize the practice was denied.
The leaf -- the main ingredient of cocaine -- was declared an illegal narcotic in the 1961 U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, along with drugs like cocaine, heroin and opium, but is chewed by many Bolivians to curb hunger and altitude sickness.
The country's regulations are the only in the world that contain a chapter protecting the use of coca, labelling it as a "cultural cohesion" factor.
President Evo Morales, a former coca grower and the Andean country's first indigenous leader, has stepped up efforts to curb coca production, but its elimination programs have been outpaced by the spread of new crops, sounding alarm bells in neighbouring Brazil as well as the United States.
The Bolivian Social Defence Deputy Minister, Felipe Caceres, said recently the government had achieved record coca eradication up to November.
"We have accomplished our annual plan of eradicating 10,051 hectares of illegal and surplus coca plantations in national parks until today," he said.
Caceres also said that the country had been able to stabilize production.
"From 2006 to 2010 there was a significant increase of 5 to 7 percent in coca plantations. But with the administration of 2011 we have stabilized the surplus cultivations," he said.
The Latin American Scientific Research Centre (Celin), which has been studying the use of coca leaves for decades, said that despite official initiatives, coca production and consumption had increased in the past years.
Before 2006, coca was only produced in two departments of the country -- La Paz and Cochabamba. Nowadays, the plant is also cultivated in Beni and Santa Cruz.
The Bolivian head of Celin, Franklin Alcaraz said that the increase was due to pro-coca policies.
"In 2000, 5,400 hectares of coca were needed in Los Yungas to supply all the legal necessities, including exportation and industrialization of the coca leaf. Since there was an increase of the population and a boost from the government that is sympathetic to coca, there has been a raise of traditional consumption that had been low since 2000. We have concluded that with 8,000 hectares of coca farms in Los Yungas we can supply the legal market," he said.
He said most of the coca being produced was not for the legal market.
"We have 31,000 hectares (of coca plantations) with an aggravating circumstance that, according to the United Nations' studies, almost 93 percent of the coca production in El Chapare is not destined to the legal market," he said.
According to the Bolivian U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime Representative, Cesar Guedes, Bolivia would be the ninth country to withdraw from the Convention.
"There are nine states inside the U.N. that aren't members of the Vienna Convention. Bolivia became the ninth and joined the other eight," he said.
"Bolivia absolutely doesn't have any relation with islands that are located far from drug trafficking routes; that are outside any consumption scheme; that don't produce drugs and which haven't joined the Convention for logistic reasons. But their internal legislations were made to control the drugs. Bolivia doesn't fit in on that. It's not good for Bolivia's image to not be a member of the Convention, but it is important to explain the reasons, so that other countries can understand its motives. If we don't explain that, it would seem that Bolivia is just not a part of the Convention and this would be serious for a country with these characteristics," he said.
The coca leaf is a mild stimulant and is chewed widely amongst Bolivian indigenous populations and others to lessen the affects of altitude sickness, suppress hunger and is considered by many to be a part of their cultural heritage that predates even the Incas in the area. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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