"Let Me Chew My Coca Leaves"

Following up on the Global Forum of Producers of Crops Declared Illicit (a mouthful) held in January in Barcelona, I wanted to give you all some info about the recent UNGASS' (UN General Assembly Special Session) meeting on Narcotics, which happens roughly every 10 years (this year, March 11-14). The last time in 1999, we were at the beginning of Plan Colombia, and now in 2009, we are at the beginning of Plan Mexico. The first one failed, and the new one will, too, at the cost of thousands more lives (interestingly, both President Uribe y Calderón have used the campaign slogan "Mano Dura" - Firm Hand). Here's a good blog about Mexico.

President Morales of Bolivia, an Aymara indigenous and long-time defender of coca leaf producers, made a great speech to the UN on March 15th, where he talked about the need to reverse the 1961 decision made by the UN's Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to place the coca leaf in the same category as cocaine. He talked about the medicinal, cultural and alimentary uses of the coca leaf. (I don't know... the first time I tried coca was from a smart-ass Kankuamo indigenous in Colombia, who laughed when I got dizzy and threw up all the buffalo meat I had eaten that morning. He said it was because I had bad thoughts. Haha! Actually, I think I threw up not because of the coca leaf, but because I ingested the bitter ambira, a tobacco tar-like substance that the Sierra Nevada indigenous use with their coca.)

Read Morales' NYTimes Op-Ed here. Información en español aquí.

Also, from Transnational Institute (TNI), you can get some more detailed analysis. TNI had a representative at the Barcelona Producers' Forum, and along with two farmer representatives, gave a statement at the UNGASS meeting.

Also, Andrew Willis Garcés has posted some on-the-ground documentation of Plan Colombia on his blog. Good stuff.

I'll keep you updated on things in Egypt and things out here when I get past saying "thank you" and "dog" in Arabic.