Morales sticks up fo the Coca leaf

The President of Bolivia Evo Morales plans to stand up for his country's practice of chewing the Coco leaf.

Following a meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs this week in Vienna Morales writing in the New York Times today says

for the past eight years, the millions of us who maintain the traditional practice of chewing coca have been, according to the convention, criminals who violate international law.

arguing that

The paste or the concentrate that is extracted from the coca leaf, commonly known as cocaine, is indeed a narcotic, but the plant itself is not.

Why should centuries of tradition be wiped away and as he points out

Unlike nicotine or caffeine, it causes no harm to human health nor addiction or altered state, and it is effective in the struggle against obesity, a major problem in many modern societies.