Pubdate: Thu, 12 Mar 2009
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2009 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author: Toby Green
Photo: Bolivia's President Evo Morales chewed a coca leaf at a United 
Nations drugs conference yesterday, arguing for its use to be 
permitted http://www.mapinc.org/images/moraleschewedcocaleaf.jpg
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/ungass.htm (UN Vienna drugs conference)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Evo+Morales (Evo Morales)

THIS IS A COCA LEAF, NOT COCAINE, INSISTS MORALES

Evo Morales, the Bolivian leader, ate a coca leaf in front of 
delegates at the UN summit on drugs yesterday, to underline his 
demand that the raw ingredient of cocaine should be allowed for 
medicinal and other uses.

President Morales, a former peasant coca farmer, brandished the leaf 
during an impassioned speech, saying: "This is coca leaf, this is not 
cocaine, this is part and parcel of a culture." He told ministers 
that the ban on coca was a "major historical mistake".

He added: "It has no harmful impact, no harmful impact at all in its 
natural state. It causes no mental disturbances, it does not make 
people run mad, as some would have us believe, and it does not cause 
addiction."

Coca is commonly used in Bolivia and Peru to stave off hunger and 
altitude sickness, as well as being used in cooking.

Mr Morales, who also said that he was dedicated to tackling the trade 
in illicit drugs, including cocaine, said that he hoped US President 
Barack Obama would support his campaign.

"The new US President has similarities to me," he said.

"Before, nobody believed that an Indian could be president and nobody 
thought that a black man could be president of the United States."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake