Coke, a leaf like any other?

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Coca leaf at a market in La Paz. Getty Images - John Coletti

Text by: Alice Campaignolle Follow

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Last week, the Bolivian Vice-President announced that his country would take steps to request the removal of the coca leaf from the United Nations list of narcotic drugs. For him, this international classification is a "historical error" that must be repaired, the fruit of Western domination. Indeed, if the coca leaf is indeed at the origin of cocaine, consumed in its vast majority in the countries of the North, it is, in its natural state, consumed throughout the country and is considered "sacred" and above all legal.

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From our correspondent in La Paz,

Coca, the leaf that grows in the tropical Yungas region of Bolivia, at the origin of cocaine, has found itself these days in the hushed corridors of ministries. Because Foreign Affairs is working hard to demand the removal of coca from the United Nations list of narcotic drugs. "First, we will send a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, together with a dossier containing all the scientific and academic studies on the issue. In addition, we will ask the WHO to take a critical step regarding this classification as a coca drug," said Freddy Mamani, Bolivia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

David Choquehuanca repeated it in his speech to the United Nations Commission on Drugs: coca should not be considered a drug. She was punished, he said, for crimes she did not commit. "The coca leaf in its natural is not narcotic, and is not addictive. It is part of our cultural identity, as food, as medicine, as a central element of social cohesion. But in addition, if it is removed from the list, it would allow us to export derived products, such as infusions in particular, "explains Freddy Mamani.

► Read also: Before the UN, Bolivia pleads to free the marketing of coca leaves

For more information, you should speak to an expert. Sdenka Silva, a sociologist, has studied the world of coca, and she is co-founder of the museum dedicated to her in La Paz. Between two arrivals of tourists who came to learn more about the so-called sacred leaf, she teaches us, first of all, to chew coca: "Coca is always consumed with an alkaline element. Here, it is ash, banana in our case. But for example, in northern Colombia and parts of Peru, they use powdered shellfish... Therefore! You take a handful of coke, put your alkaline element in the middle and surround it with the leaves. And once in your mouth, you don't actually chew, you wait for it to moisten and you absorb the juice. There you go! That's how you chew coca."

Sdenka has been using coca for about forty years. And for her, it does not make sense that it is illegal: "This is the goal of this museum, the international decriminalization of coca. The Danes, for example, are the first producers of poppy, the flower; And poppy is not banned even though it is the basis of heroin. But in our case, everything is forbidden!

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Bolivian Vice President David Choquehuanca (L) and President Luis Arce (center) chew coca leaves during the celebration of the "acullico" tradition, a day part of an international campaign for the traditional use of the coca leaf, in La Paz, January 11, 2023. © Claudia Morales / Reuters

In Bolivia, the coca leaf is central. It is used in ritual ceremonies at "Mother Earth" for example, and Andean shamans read the future there. It is consumed all over the country, as much by urban academics like Sdenka as by miners to endure fatigue or by mountaineers to withstand the altitude. It is much more than a simple leaf: "Coca is what we would call a cultural axis, as is money for example. If money disappears, our societies could collapse. To ban coca is therefore to deny the existence of societies that are more enlightened and stable than ours."

But coca is also the plant at the base of cocaine. And since an American report from the 50s, it is classified as narcotic. Today, other studies have been conducted, recognizing the benefits, nutritional and stimulating in particular. It is these publications that the Bolivian authorities now want to make known. But before Bolivia's approach to the United Nations succeeds, it will be several more years if the approach succeeds.

► Read also: Bolivia: coca galore

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