2. The inclusion of the coca leaf on the list of narcotic drugs ([Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs] (1961)) has led to coca users being confused with drug addicts, coca producers with drug-traffickers, and coca with cocaine. The indigenous peoples of the Andes (Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, northern Chile and Argentina) for many centuries used the coca leaf for its highly nutritional and curative powers, which have been proven by recent scientific research, but never, until today, did they use it as a drug. In Andean culture, the coca leaf has always played a very important role in the spiritual, medical and trade spheres. It helps to counter harsh climatic conditions through its protein and vitamin content and is a powerful symbol of man's attachment to Mother Earth (Pachamama). Every civilization has developed its own symbolic intermediaries (such as the vine in western cultures).
3. The USA, using the fight against drugs as a pretext, and instead of combating its own users and traffickers, is penalizing indigenous producers by outlawing production and advocating the eradication of coca crops with toxic products that cause major environmental damage. They also take advantage of these activities to set up military bases in the producer countries in order covertly to monitor "difficult" zones and conduct a so-called anti-guerrilla war.
4. While on the one hand an attempt is being made to outlaw the coca leaf, on the other the materials required for the production of coca paste are not outlawed. Without them, the leaf cannot be synthetized into a drug. To produce 1,000 tonnes of coca paste, which is what is needed to meet the worldwide annual demand (800 tonnes of pure cocaine), requires 9 million litres of kerosene, 5 million litres of sulphuric acid, 2.5 tonnes of quicklime, 496 tonnes of carbide, 2.5 tonnes of toilet paper, 1 million litres of acetone or toluene and 1.25 million litres of glue. These highly toxic products, in which the coca leaves are macerated, are used and discarded without any precaution in the rivers and soils. Most of them are found not in South America but in industrialized countries.