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Uncle Sam hates drugs!!!!

Uncle Sam wants to jail anyone on the planet who uses drugs!

  Who cares if poverty stricken Indians in Bolivia chew coca leaves? Uncle Sam! Uncle Sam wants to put them in jail!

Doesn't Uncle Sam have any real criminals to hunt down, other then people who commit victimless drug war crimes? Why does Uncle Sam have to stick his nose into the the business of other countries throughout that world and attempt to jail their citizens for harmless victimless crimes!

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Posted: January 19

U.S. to fight Bolivia on allowing coca-leaf chewing

Washington wants the U.N. to keep the ban, but Bolivia insists use of the stimulant is a vital cultural tradition.

The Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia — The U.S. will file a formal objection today to Bolivia's proposal to end the ban on coca leaf-chewing contained in a half-century-old U.N. treaty, according to a senior U.S. government official.

President Evo Morales holds a bottle of Coca Brynco, a Bolivian soda made with coca leaves, during a meeting with foreign reporters last week in La Paz.

"We hope that a number of other countries will file as well," the official told The Associated Press on Tuesday. He spoke on condition that he not be further identified, citing the topic's political sensitivity.

Despite being stigmatized as the raw material of cocaine, coca leaves have been chewed by indigenous peoples in the Andes for centuries.

A mild stimulant, the leaves have deep cultural and religious value in the region. Chewed or consumed as tea, coca counters altitude sickness, aids digestion and quells hunger and fatigue.

Jan. 31 is the deadline for nations to raise objections with the United Nations to Bolivia's proposed amendment to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to remove language that obliges signatories to prohibit the chewing of coca leaves. If no objections are registered, the amendment would automatically take effect.

Bolivia's leftist government, which is led by a former coca growers union leader, and its supporters contend the language they want removed is discriminatory.

The 1961 convention's stipulation that coca-chewing be phased out within 25 years after it took effect in 1964 is based on a "blatantly racist" 1950 report, according to two liberal advocacy groups, the Washington Office on Latin America and the Transnational Institute. The Bolivian proposal would leave in place language that made coca leaves a controlled substance.

Bolivian President Evo Morales launched a global campaign after his 2005 election seeking to declare coca legal, chewing it at international forums and presenting coca leaf-embossed art works and musical instruments to foreign officials, including then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"How can it be possible that the coca leaf, which represents our identity, which is ancestral, be penalized," Morales, an Aymara Indian, told reporters Friday before dispatching his foreign minister to Europe to lobby for the proposal.

Washington argues that the amendment would open the nearly 50-year-old convention to attack by any U.N. member nation that would seek to exclude for parochial reasons one of the 119 substances the convention classifies as narcotics, submitting them to strict controls.

Trying to carve out such exceptions "over the long term is not good for the planet's efforts to control and eventually solve the problem of drug abuse," the senior U.S. official said. He said Washington also fears it could open a Pandora's box of legal challenges to drug convictions in the United States.

The official said "there is evidence to suggest that a substantial percentage" of the increased coca production in Bolivia over the past several years, registered in U.N. surveys, "has indeed gone into the network and the marketplace for cocaine."


Source

Bolivia: Coca leaves ban must be overturned

By News Desk — GlobalPost Editors

Published: January 18, 2011 22:25 ET in The Americas

Bolivia has embarked on an international mission to try to end the ban on chewing coca leaves. But the United States plans on getting in its way.

Coca has been used in the Andes for thousands of years as a mild stimulant and herbal medicine, but it is also a raw ingredient in the drug cocaine.

Bolivia, which argues that chewing coca leaves is part of indigenous culture, hopes to take coca leaves off a UN treaty on banned drugs, BBC News reports.

President Evo Morales, a former leader of a coca growers' union, argues that it is discriminatory to classify coca as an illicit drug and launched a global campaign after his election in 2005 to legalize it.

Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca has begun a European tour to gain support for Bolivia's efforts to amend the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs, thereby making coca a controlled substance but not illegal.

Spain has already given its support to Bolivia's campaign.

"Spanish foreign minister Trinidad Jimenez told Mr Choquehuanca in Madrid that she 'understood' Bolivia's demand and would try to mediate with other European countries thought to be considering an objection," according to BBC News.

The United States plans on formally objecting to Bolivia's proposal on Wednesday, AP reports. It argues that changing the convention would pave the way for other nations to challenge the inclusion of certain narcotics based on parochial reasons.

Signatories to the convention have until Jan. 31 to object to Bolivia's amendment. If no objections are registered, it automatically takes effect.

Meanwhile, Bolivia launched a new soft drink made from coca leaves called Coca Brynco, AFP reports.

"Intended to rival its more famous US cousin Coca Cola, the fizzy drink, much like last year's introduction of Coca Colla, is at the center of a plan from coca growers in the central rural Bolivian province of Chapare to boost coca production," it states.

Do you think chewing coca leaves should be legal? Does it matter that they have been part of the culture in the Andes for thousands of years?


Source

Bolivia hopes for buzz with coca campaign

By Peter Wilkinson, CNN

January 19, 2011 -- Updated 1230 GMT (2030 HKT)

(CNN) -- For almost half a century the chewing of coca leaves, a practice dating back thousands of years, has been banned internationally. Now, Bolivia is urging countries to back a campaign to have coca removed from a United Nations list of banned drugs.

Coca is widely used in the Andes as a mild stimulant and herbal medicine. Advocates say the leaves, which contain small amounts of cocaine, have several health and social benefits and dismiss claims it is dangerous.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, a former union leader for coca growers, has said "sacred" coca in its raw state is not an addictive drug and emphasizes that it has had a legitimate medical purpose for hundreds of years.

But coca remains the raw ingredient for the purified forms of cocaine, which are illegal for non-medicinal, non-government-sanctioned purposes in virtually all countries.

According to the Washington Office on Latin America, (WOLA) an American non-governmental organization, the United States is likely to oppose any move to have coca leaf removed from the 1961 U.N. Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs. The International Narcotics Control Board is also opposed to any lifting of the ban.

In an attempt to win over doubters, Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca is on a European tour this week, urging leaders there not to block its campaign. If no objections are raised by January 31, the change will take place automatically, according to the WOLA.

Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez told Choquehuanca on Tuesday that Spain understands Bolivian's petition and has shown its interest to mediate on this issue so an agreement could be reached, according to EFE.

If the change in the status does take place it could mean coca products being sold around the world as well as energy drinks, flour and even toothpaste derived from the leaves.

One of these, Coca Colla, which trades on the name of the more famous U.S. soft drink that originally contained coca, has been a hit since its launch last year in Bolivia, and another was launched on Tuesday.

The new product, called "Coca Brynco," was launched at an official ceremony in Bolivia's capital La Paz, emphasizing support from Morales's government for the venture, Agence France-Presse reported.

Bolivia is currently the world's third biggest coca producer after Colombia and Peru, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, so if its campaign to legalize coca leaves is successful the country has much to gain.

 

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