Note: Four of LEAP's board members are in Vienna attending the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs this week, from which they sent us this special report.
03/11/2013
VIENNA -
Bolivian president Evo Morales again stole the show at the 56th Session of the Commission
on Narcotic Drugs (CND), proclaiming that the UN drug rules and conventions had failed to control drugs and had led to "more and more drugs on the
market," "more violence," and "more hidden money in the
banking sector."
More
than one year ago, Pres. Morales created a CND stir and committed drug policy heresy
by leading Bolivia to repudiate and withdraw from the UN 1961 Single Convention
on Narcotic Drugs. After initially requesting an exemption from the international
convention in order to permit the chewing of the coca leaf for cultural,
traditional and medical reasons, and being denied such relief, Bolivia
unilaterally withdrew from the treaty, a first by any nation of the world.
Last
year, at the same CND annual meeting, Pres. Morales asked that Bolivia be
readmitted as a signatory to the Single Convention with the exception that the
coca leaf be removed from the long list of UN prohibited drugs. Although the
coca leaf has many constructive uses in food, beverage, and medicinal products,
it is also the foundational ingredient for cocaine. Morales, however, made
clear that he and Bolivian were opposed to legalizing cocaine.
In
response to Morales 2012 speech, rather than being condemned by other Member
States to the Single Convention, many delegates to the 55th Session applauded
him. And
during the past year, all Member States to the Convention, with the exception
of 15 countries, approved the re-admittance of Bolivia to the drug
prohibitionist UN family.
President Morales had more news for the 2013 Session.
Bravely,
he declared that the international drug rules and conventions had failed. He
proclaimed that despite UN anti-drug treaties, today "we have more and
more drugs on the market," "more and more violence," and
"more and more forbidden money in the banking sector."
He also
pointed out that despite the UN war on drugs Afghanistan had an 18% increase in the production of poppies this year over last. The poppy is
the plant from which opium, morphine and heroin are made. Morales pointed out
that the mushrooming poppy crop occurred despite the U.S. military occupation
of Afghanistan, and that one-half of Afghan provinces and one-third more
families were cultivating opium.
Morales contended that drug war has become an instrument of political
domination. He also pointed out that without U.S. "occupation,"
Bolivia is doing much better in drug control than it did historically.
Contravening
another UN mantra, Morales stated that drug control is not a "shared
responsibility," explaining
that Bolivia no longer receives any anti-drug money from the U.S. He further touted
the fact that Bolivia does not use chemicals to eradicate the coca plants, and contented
that thereby it was protecting "Mother Earth."
Challenging
other UN conventional protocol, Morales claimed that alternative development in
substitution for coca plant cultivation was a waste of time. He explained that
the illegal market dictates the price of coca, and no legal crop is
comparable in price. The
only competitive product for the coca plant would be opium or marijuana.
- Maria Lucia Karam, Jim Gierach, Annie Machon, Terry Nelson
