Colombia will seek to ensure that coca leaf is not a banned substance

BOGOTÁ (AP) — Colombia plans to join Bolivia in the diplomatic effort to propose that coca leaf be removed from the list of substances subject to international drug control at the next session of the United Nations Commission United on Narcotic Drugs.

“We will support the traditional use of the coca leaf with respect for our indigenous peoples,” Laura Gil, Colombia’s deputy minister for multilateral affairs, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The Colombian official did not specify whether he will present a draft resolution at the meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs to be held in Vienna from March 13 to 17 and which Colombia will chair. The Commission is made up of 53 member states and has the mandate to decide on the extent of drug control.

The day before, Gil assured that Colombia will present in Vienna the bases of the new international strategy for the fight against narcotics: “We are going to claim the legal use of the coca leaf, we will do it alongside Bolivia… it’s time to put the issue back on the table”.

The Bolivian government has not commented on the statements of its Colombian peers.

Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, has pledged to radically change the anti-narcotics strategy after warning that the “war on drugs has failed”. His government seeks to prevent the persecution of peasants and to focus intelligence efforts on major drug traffickers and money launderers. In addition, it intends to promote the voluntary substitution of illicit crops and reduce forced eradication.

Illicit crops continue to be a major concern in Colombia. In 2021, they reached a historic level of 204,000 hectares planted, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Recently, Petro asked Congress for extraordinary powers for six months to “regulate” the alternative uses of coca and cannabis plants and the “medicinal, therapeutic and scientific purposes of psychoactive substances”. Members of Congress should debate it.

Colombia would be one of the first countries to join Bolivia in the international campaign for the UN to withdraw its veto on the traditional uses of coca under the pretext that in its natural state it is not a narcotic and part of the identity of indigenous communities.

In Bolivia, the cultivation of coca up to 22,500 hectares for traditional consumption such as chewing and infusions is legal. More than 100,000 families depend on this crop.

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales (2006-2019) spoke about the decriminalization of coca before the UN. In 2011 his proposal was rejected and Bolivia decided to denounce the 1961 Narcotic Drugs Convention to later request a request for readmission which in 2013 was accepted to unite under the condition that the chewing of the leaf of coca be respected in his country.

Even with Bolivia’s decision, the coca plant remains on the list of controlled substances because it is the raw material for cocaine.

In Colombia, the coca leaf is recognized as part of the indigenous culture and its traditional use. However, there remains a specific regulation for its use because currently its interpretation is ambiguous and it is not authorized for non-indigenous communities.

“There is a legal framework from the decisions of the Constitutional Court where the coca leaf is recognized as an integral part of the cultural identity of certain indigenous peoples so that they can cultivate it and feed themselves from the commercialization of the leaf and some derivatives, of course not cocaine which is illegal,” Luis Felipe Cruz, a drug expert and researcher at Dejusticia, a center for legal and social studies, told AP.

Thus, more than the internal discussion in Colombia on the traditional uses of the coca leaf, Cruz considers that the government’s intention to bring the question before the Commission on Narcotic Drugs is a political message that can energize the discussion on the reform of the coca leaf. coca leaf international drug control regime.

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AP reporter Carlos Valdez contributed from La Paz, Bolivia.