Bolivia Steps Up Campaign at U.N. to Legalise Coca Leaf http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55444

Is coca a dangerous drug that should be tightly regulated, or an essential part of Andean indigenous people's cultural and medicinal heritage? Or perhaps both?In the coming months, diplomats at the U.N. body will face the thorny issue of how to address the production and use of coca plants in the Andes region of South America. The United States and some of its European allies contend that coca leaf is a narcotic substance and that its production must be banned in accordance with the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The Bolivian government strongly disagrees, and for the past two years has been calling for an amendment to article 49 of the U.N. anti-narcotics treaty that considers coca production unlawful. 

In a bid to convince the international community to legalise the use and production of coca in the Andes, President Evo Morales has repeatedly stressed that, "Coca is not cocaine."Coca leaf-chewing by indigenous communities in the Andes is a centuries-old tradition. The native communities consider it a vital source of energy, nutrition and social unity. Officials in northern Europe and the United States are opposed to Morales' call to declare coca leaf a non-narcotic crop because the use and abuse of cocaine is pervasive in their countries.

Martin Jelsma of the Transnational Institute, which conducts research on global social movements and their struggle for economic, social and environmental justice, thinks the ban on coca chewing is "a violation of indigenous peoples' rights and that it is in contravention of several other treaties and declarations". The U.N. biological diversity treaty and the declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, for example, fully recognise the right of native peoples to practice their cultural values and belief systems.