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TNI Drugs & Conflict Debate Papers series:
Coca Myths
TNI Drugs & Conflict Debate Papers 17, June 2009
History has been unjust to the coca leaf, denying it distribution on a
global scale despite
its proven value as an energy enhancer, while limiting its potential
for widespread use as a healthy alternative to all sorts of chemical
stimulants currently available on the world
market.
Go to the online summary
‘Paco’
Under Scrutiny
The cocaine base paste market in the Southern Cone
TNI Drugs and Conflict Debate paper 14, October
2006
Based on two studies carried out
in the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo and additional research in Brazil,
this report examines the origin, characteristics and impact of the explosive
increase in consumption of cocaine base paste and crack in urban areas.
Coca
Yes, Cocaine No?
Legal Options for the Coca Leaf
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 13, May 2006
A simple leaf of an ancient
plant will feature prominently on the international agenda this year. As international
relations and specialised mechanisms for managing the international drugs trade
have evolved, a decade-old demand to remove the coca leaf from strict
international drugs controls has come to the fore again in recent months. Time
has come to repair an historical error responsible for including the leaf
amongst the most hazardous classified substances. This issue explains the
motives, context and range of this petition, as well as the procedures that
need to be followed to reach this objective.
Coca or
Death?
Cocalero Movements in Peru and Bolivia
TNI Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 10, April
2004
This issue of Drugs and Conflict
analyses cocalero peasant organisations in Peru and Bolivia and their
interaction with successive governments during the peasant mobilisations of
recent years. The achievements and failures of such negotiations expose the
difficulty in finding peaceful and sustainable solutions to an issue as intricate
as the cultivation of coca leaf.
TNI Drug Policy Briefing
series:
Colombia coca cultivation survey results
A question of methods
Drug Policy Briefing No, 22, June 2007
Despite 2006 witnessing the most intensive use of
fumigation in the country’s history, some 157,200 hectares of cultivation areas
were detected, 13,200 hectares more than in 2005. Is the fumigation strategy
failing?
Sending the wrong
message
The INCB and the un-scheduling of the coca leaf
TNI Drug Policy Briefing No. 21, March 2007
The 2006 International Narcotics
Control Board (INCB) report emitted a clear signal to the governments of
Bolivia, Peru and Argentina that growing and using coca leaf is in conflict
with international treaties, particularly the 1961 Single Convention. The INCB,
rather than making harsh judgements based on a selective choice of outdated
treaty articles, should use its mandate more constructively and help draw
attention to the inherent contradictions in the current treaty system with
regard to how plants, plant-based raw materials and traditional uses are
treated.
The politicisation of fumigations
Glyphosate on the Colombian-Ecuadorian border
TNI Drug Policy Briefing No. 20, February 2007
Plan Colombia has brought environmental,
health and economic damage – and may even have stimulated the spread of coca
plantations. This briefing looks at alternatives for the Andean region and
addresses the glyphosate dispute on the Colombia-Ecuador border.
Political Challenges Posed by the Failure of Prohibition
Drugs in Colombia and the Andean-Amazonian Region
Ricardo Vargas Meza
TNI Drug Policy Briefing 16, May 2006
After a slight dip in coca
production during 2003 and 2004, the Andean region has returned to the
historical average of 200,000 hectares of coca crops. Added to this is the
sharp increase in the expansion of drug trafficking toward other countries in
the region, such as Ecuador and Venezuela, as well as new areas of Central
America and the Caribbean. The failure of Washington’s drug policy has enabled
illegal globalisation to expand its foothold in the hemisphere, with a negative
impact. With this in mind, TNI associate researcher Ricardo Vargas, describes
the lack of true public debate on drugs, especially in a country as involved in
this problem as Colombia. Given the failure of policy and the complexity of the
situation, different schools of political thought once again raise the easy
option of legalisation, a proposal that actually conceals the lack of
alternative critical thinking focused on the development of a national and
regional policy.
Aerial spraying knows no borders
Ecuador brings international case over aerial
spraying
TNI Drug Policy Briefing 15, September 2005
At the urging of various civil
humanitarian organizations and government agencies such as the Ombudsman's
Office, the Ecuadorans have requested a ban on spraying within 10 kilometres of
the border. This is a reasonable request. In this briefing the Transnational
Institute explains why the Colombian government has been unwilling to give
ground on this minimal demand, which the Ecuadorians have been making since
2001, shortly after the aerial spraying began as part of Plan Colombia.
The Politics of Glyphosate
The CICAD Study on the Impacts of Glyphosate and
the Crop Figures
TNI Drug Policy Briefing 14, June 2005
The Inter-American Drug Abuse
Control Commission (CICAD) recently joined the large number of existing scientific
studies on the possible health and environmental effects of Round Up, the
glyphosate formula being sprayed on illicit crops in Colombia. CICAD’s
investigation, under the direction of an international scientific team,
concluded that the chemicals used in the spraying do not affect human health or
the environment, and that at most they could cause temporary skin and eye
irritation, but serious doubts exist. The National University of Colombia’s
Environmental Studies Institute published a critical analysis of the CICAD
study, which considered technical aspects of the investigation, finding
methodological shortcomings, as well as omissions and inconsistencies
throughout the report. Those findings could point to a lack of impartiality in
the CICAD study.
Broken
Promises and Coca Eradication in Peru
TNI Drug Policy Briefing 11,
March 2005
The forced crop eradication
policy implemented by the Peruvian government over the past 25 years has
failed. The official strategy has exacerbated social conflicts; contributed to
various types of subversive violence; jeopardized local economies, also
affecting the national economy; and destroyed forests as crops have become more
scattered. Worst of all, it has not resolved any of the underlying causes of
drug trafficking, such as poverty, marginalisation and government neglect.
Super
Coca?
TNI Drug Policy Briefing 8,
September 2004
Apparently a coca plant was
found in Colombia's Sierra Nevada that had a high cocaine content and a higher
level of purity, and which was also resistant to the effects of aerial
spraying. The content of the report is so absurd that it appears to be a bad
joke. Or is there something more behind it?
Coca,
Cocaine and the International Conventions
TNI Drug Policy Briefing 5,
April 2003
It is no understatement to claim
that there are few plants subject to such tensions as the coca leaf, either in
legal and political circuits, or in the medical and anthropological academic
world. Before, during and after its inclusion in the number 1 list of the
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, the controversy on whether the
coca leaf is or is not to be considered a narcotic drug, worthy of control by
the international institutions and mechanisms, reached apparent irreconcilable
positions.
Other TNI reports
Vicious Circle
The Chemical and Biological "War on
Drugs"
Martin Jelsma, Transnational Institute, March 2001
Aerial fumigations with
herbicides of drug crops in Colomba set in motion a vicious circle of human,
social and environmental destruction. In Vicious Circle - The Chemical and
Biological 'War on Drugs', TNI-fellow Martin Jelsma describes how in the course
of the cycle human rights are violated, the legitimacy of the state is eroded,
alternative development is aborted, peasant support for the guerrilla
increases, the war extends to new areas, and the War on Drugs is entangled with
counterinsurgency objectives.
History
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