Strong-arms Other Countries to Follow Suit
By Daniel Ernesto Robelo, Alternet
Why is the United States formally objecting to Bolivia’s request to the UN to allow its ancestral practice of coca leaf chewing?
Last week the United States formally objected to Bolivia’s request to the United Nations to allow the ancestral practice of coca leaf chewing. In doing so, it revealed the corruption, hypocrisy and futility of the global war on drugs, which it clearly values over the rights of indigenous peoples.
Bolivia’s proposal is modest. It would strike two clauses from the 1961 U.N. Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs, which require that coca chewing “be abolished within twenty-five years” after taking effect. The existing system of cocaine prohibition would remain.