The Secretary General of the Vice Presidency of the State, Juan Carlos Alurralde, presented the forum the need to remove this raw material from the UN’s List One of Narcotic Drugs, confirmed an institutional note.

Alurralde stressed that the coca leaf has been wrongly classified as harmful since the middle of the last century, and emphasized that decisions in these forums must be based on scientific evidence and respect for indigenous peoples.

“It is essential to correct the historical prejudice affecting this ancestral plant,” he said, quoted by a press release.

He mentioned the country’s progress in advocating the coca leaf, from its withdrawal from the 1961 Convention to a new inclusion, escorted by a clause protecting the medicinal and nutritional use of the plant.

“We have demonstrated that it is possible to preserve ancestral practices – Alurralde emphasized – while complying with international regulations and combating drug trafficking in a responsible manner.”

The Bolivian representative called on the international community to acknowledge the value of the coca leaf as a common good for humanity.

He criticized that, while other plants such as cannabis (marijuana) were accepted for their medicinal properties, the coca leaf remains unfairly stigmatized, and went on to consider as obsolete and lacking in rigor the 1950 report, on which the current classification of the plant is based.

He also praised the role of the World Health Organization in the ongoing critical examination of the coca leaf, which he described as an opportunity to vindicate it as a resource of great cultural and medicinal value.

In Vienna, Bolivia reiterated its commitment to preserving Mother Earth and protecting the traditions of indigenous peoples, and confirmed that the coca leaf is a symbol of balance with nature and also a resource with transformative potential for global well-being, the release concluded.

ied/ro/jpm