VIVA LA RevoLUTION! Bolivian Leader Evo Morales Brings Coca to UN!!!

Bolivia is one of the worlds major producers of cocaine. Drugs are probably the most potent WMD ever devised. Is it wise to side with a president who openly endorses drug production?

His country has been recieving about $100 Million per year, to self police itself and eliminate drug production. Now they are going to complain, if that money is stopped, because they are not using it for the purpose it was intended?

Sounds like the Bolivian government was using the money, ear-marked to fight drugs, to promote drugs. Is it any surprise that they might have that funding cut off?

is coca produced into cocaine in bolivia?
i agree with morales. they have used coca forever in bolivia - why should they be punished just because the u.s. has a drug problem? i mean, it is their country.

format_quote Originally Posted by snakelegs

is coca produced into cocaine in bolivia?
i agree with morales. they have used coca forever in bolivia - why should they be punished just because the u.s. has a drug problem? i mean, it is their country.

Yes, it is exported from Bolivia as cocaine.

Is that actually a punishment? To stop giving them money that was to be used to end coca production and they say they are not going to stop it. Isn't that sort of like me paying you every year for a new car, but you say you are not going to build me a new car, then you say I am punishing you ,if I stop paying for the car you are not going to deliver.

Challenges

Bolivia remains the world’s third-largest producer of cocaine. Despite exceeding its international commitment to eradicate 8,000 hectares of coca in 2004, Bolivia coca cultivation increased 6% overall. The principal challenge facing Bolivia today remains the unconstrained expansion of coca cultivation in the Yungas and surrounding areas. In 2004 the Government of Bolivia (GOB) failed to give political support to programs advocating drug prevention and to undertake an effective social communication program to explain the dangers of excess coca production, drug production, and consumption pose to Bolivia society. Bolivia remains a transit country for a significant amount of Peruvian cocaine and increasing amounts of Colombian cocaine destined for Brazil, Argentina, Europe, Chile, and Paraguay.

Source:http://www.state.gov/p/inl/rls/fs/44181.htm

format_quote Originally Posted by Woodrow

Yes, it is exported from Bolivia as cocaine.

Is that actually a punishment? To stop giving them money that was to be used to end coca production and they say they are not going to stop it. Isn't that sort of like me paying you every year for a new car, but you say you are not going to build me a new car, then you say I am punishing you ,if I stop paying for the car you are not going to deliver.

upon further thought, i would have to agree with you.
the drug issue is quite complex - i still lean toward decriminalization, which would make them a lot less profitable. but this is a whole different topic.

format_quote Originally Posted by AHMED_GUREY

how much does the US spend every year on preventing hard drugs from entering the streets?

A very large amount is sent to South American Countries to pay for their Law Enforcement agenies to stop the flow of drugs at the source.

Within the USA itself The figures are for the Federal budget.

The White House anti-drug strategy calls for expanding intervention programs and increasing treatment options, increased funding for drug courts, which can order supervised drug treatment rather than prison time, and stepped-up enforcement to halt production and transportation of illegal drugs.

The president's fiscal 2007 budget request for the agency is $12.7 billion, up $109.1 million, or 1%, from the current budget of $12.5 billion, the agency said.

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Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...rug-plan_x.htm


There are also State funded projects, plus County, City and Community

Just using Austin, Texas as an example:

Other Texas programs
Other Texas state agencies besides TEA and the Governor's Office provide funding for drug abuse prevention. TCADA's budget for prevention programs in fiscal 1997 was more than $37 million, with $33 million coming from federal funds and the remainder from state funds.[10] The Texas Juvenile Probation Commission spent $1.3 million and the Texas Youth Commission spent $150,000 for prevention programs in fiscal 1997. As with its SDFSCA-funded efforts, though, Texas does not have any standardized evaluation criteria to judge the effectiveness of programs funded through these agencies.[11]

Alcohol and drug abuse imposes heavy social and economic costs to communities. The total economic costs of alcohol and drug abuse in Texas were estimated at $25.9 billion for 2000. Alcohol abuse cost an estimated $16.4 billion (63%), while drug abuse or dependency accounted for $9.5 billion (37%).


According to TCADA’s Substance Abuse Prevention Framework and FY 2005 Services Recommendations, Texas spent more than $2 billion in health care costs associated with drug and alcohol abuse in 2000; lost productivity due to alcohol and drugs cost Texas $11.2 billion that same year. On a per capita basis, the 2000 amount translates to $1,244 per man, woman, and child in the state or $10,881,728 in Travis County based on 2004 population projections ( Economic Costs of Alcohol and Drug Abuse in Texas-2000

If I did the same thing like him in Malaysia.... I'll definitely go to jail...

president morales was interviewed this morning on democracy now.
here's what he said about coca:

AMY GOODMAN: Welcome to Democracy Now! and the United States, President Evo Morales. Why did you bring a coca leaf to the United Nations?

PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] First of all, thanks very much for the invitation to speak with you today. It’s the first time I’ve been in these lands, the United States. And as the coca leaf has been permanently accused of being a drug, so I brought the leaf to demonstrate that the coca leaf is not a drug. The coca leaf is green. It’s not white. So I came to show that the coca leaf is not a drug and it can be beneficial to humanity. So that’s why I was there at the first ordinary session at the United Nations with a coca leaf. Had it been a drug, I would have been detained certainly. We’re starting the campaign to bring dignity back to the coca leaf, starting with the decriminalization of the coca leaf.

AMY GOODMAN: How is it used for beneficial purposes? Why is it so important to you in Bolivia?

PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] The coca leaf is part of culture. There is legal consumption, traditional consumption, which is called the piccheo in Bolivia, the chaccheo in Peru, el mambeo in Colombia, which is the traditional chewing of coca. Moreover, this traditional consumption is backed up by scientific research done in universities in Europe and the United States. Not long ago a study came out of Harvard University that said it’s a very nutritious – it’s a good source of nutrition, that it can not only be used through chewing, but could also be consumed through eating. The last study done by the World Health Organization has demonstrated clearly that the coca leaf does no harm to people.

And there’s also ritual uses, including in the Aymara culture, for example, when you ask for someone’s hand in marriage, the coca leaf plays an important part in that ritual. We could also talk about a number of pharmaceutical products that come or derive from the coca leaf. The first local anesthetics that were used in modern medicine were derived from the coca leaf. Up to some five, six, seven years ago, there was a company from the United States that used to come to the Chapare to buy coca to be exported to the United States for the use in making Coca-Cola. And we can think of a lot of products, industrial products, that could be derived from the coca leaf that would be beneficial to humanity.

for a transcript go to
http://www.democracynow.org/article..../09/22/1323211

format_quote Originally Posted by Obi-Wan

From the article in the opening post.

"Morales has upped his government's enforcement efforts against cocaine production while continuing to promote coca's legal use in tea, medicines and other products."

If coca has other uses, then why destroy the leaf? Just stop the drug production.

Actually he can do that, however he would loose the USA funding for drug enforcement. His country is free to produce as much coca as they desire to. However, that would end his US funding for drug enforcement. It is his choice he can have the coca production or he can have the funds to end the coca production, he can't have both.

The reason for the emphasis being on the plant is the coca fields are visible and can be controlled. The cocaine production takes place indoors hidden from view. It is virtually impossible to keep up with the cocaine producers, but the raw substance can be controlled.

Some interesting thoughts about the Coca "Tea"

Source: http://www.peruconnections.com/inkatea/history.html

The Legal aspect of Importation of Coca Leaf

The Stepan Company (a $400 million American Stock Exchange company) of Maywood, New Jersey imports 175,000 KG of coca leaves into the United States each year. The leaves come from some of the same farms that supply the Columbian drug cartels. Its finished products end up into nearly everyone in the United States.

One finished product of course is cocaine, which exit the buildings in armored trucks. Tincture of cocaine is one application: in an ointment, it numbs nerve endings in a hurry and it causes vasoconstriction (closure of peripheral blood vessels). The same medical action that controls bleeding in the emergency room is the one that rots away the bridge of a coke abuser's nose.

The other major product is the coca in Coca-Cola©. The Coke formula is one of the most closely guarded corporate secrets in America. The company concedes to using a 'decocainized flavor essence in the coca leaves'-one of the few Coke ingredients the company will publicly acknowledge. When asked why the company uses such a troublesome product as coca leaves, its representative said that 'each ingredient adds to the flavor profile.'

Flavor scientists say that the mysterious essence has no significant taste of its own , but acts as an 'enhancer' PepsiCo Inc. does not use the coca leaf. Flavor scientist Nicholas Feurstein thinks that the average guzzler might well notice the difference if Coke stopped using it. ..

The very first batch of Coca-Cola contained an extract of coca leaves back in 1886. Coke had in fact contained traces of cocaine ever since John 'Doc' Pemberton created the drink. At the turn of the century, a public outcry erupted against cocaine. Doctors and editorialists began taking aim at Coca-Cola.

Now the company had a catch-22 problem. If it removed the coca leaf from the product's manufacture, it could no longer defend use of the name. If cocaine was used, an angry public would boycott Coca-Cola. An elaborate extraction process was devised.

The leaf is ground up, mixed with sawdust, soaked in bicarbonate of soda, percolated with toluene, steam blasted, mixed with powdered Kola nuts, and then pasteurized. The Coke-Cola company, forever fearful of the DEA and the drug lords, is a stickler on security and quality.

Drug lords have a less formal way to extract cocaine: they use kerosene as a solvent; the drug leaches out like tea from a tea bag. Cocaine is then recovered by evaporation.

The little "harmless" green leaf is loaded with cocaine. Might be why the leaf is addictive.