Thursday, 10 April 2008

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) released a new short film in their excellent series on the proceedings of the 2008 Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). In "Coca Leaf: The Heritage of the Andes" Felipe Cáceres, the Vice Minister of Social Defence of Bolivia is interviewed. He explains the traditional use of the coca leaf and rejects the controversial statements of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) in its 2007 annual report calling on the Bolivian and Peruvian governments to eliminate the use of coca leaf contrary to the 1961 Single Convention and to abolish coca chewing and coca tea.

Legal options for the coca leaf

A simple leaf of an ancient plant will feature prominently on the international agenda the coming years. 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.
Time has come to repair an historical error responsible for including the leaf amongst the most hazardous classified substances. This issue of Drugs and Conflict explains the motives, context and range of this petition, as well as the procedures that need to be followed to reach this objective.

Coca yes, cocaine no?
Legal options for the coca leaf
TNI Drugs & Conflict Debate Papers 13, May 2006
> Download the full briefing

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.

Coca, Cocaine and the International Conventions
TNI Drug Policy Briefing 5, April 2003
> Download the briefing paper (pdf)

Revising and Integrating Policies at National and International Level
Presentation by Martin Jelsma
Wilton Park Conference: Drug Policies and Their Impact
UK, 27 March 2002 

The polarisation of 'prohibition versus legalisation' is confusing public opinion and paralysing the policy debate. We have to move beyond seeing the current prohibition regime as the ultimate line of defence against the flood of evil drugs and where the UN conventions are cast in stone. On the other hand, we also have to be careful with a drug policy reform agenda which speaks in terms of the "fall of the wall of prohibition" as long as concepts of legalisation are so diverse, ill-defined, confusing and the consequences not sufficiently thought through for the whole drug chain.

The International Narcotics Control Board: Current Tensions and Options for Reform
IDPC Briefing Paper 7, February 2008

This briefing paper brings together material and analysis from a number of recent reports that raise questions about the role and functioning of the INCB. The IDPC analysis is that the Board mixes a rigid and overzealous approach to some aspects of its mandate, while showing a selective reticence in others. These inconsistencies do not arise automatically from the structure or role of the Board, but from the operational and policy decisions of its officers and members.