UN drugs treaty bans chewing coca..Bolivians protest

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12292661

Indigenous activists in Bolivia have been holding a mass coca-chewing protest as part of campaign to end an international ban on the practice.

Hundreds of people chewed the leaf outside the US embassy in La Paz and in other cities across the country.

Bolivia wants to amend a UN drugs treaty that bans chewing coca, which is an ancient tradition in the Andes.

But the US has said it will veto the amendment because coca is also the raw material for making cocaine.

The protesters outside the US embassy also displayed products made from coca, including soft drinks, toothpaste, sweets and ointments.

They were supporting a Bolivian government campaign to amend the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to remove language that bans the chewing of coca leaf.

The convention stipulates that coca-chewing be eliminated within 25 years of the convention coming into effect in 1964.

Bolivia says that is discriminatory, given that coca use is so deeply rooted in the indigenous culture of the Andes.

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i have included this story because ist a good example of how the UN makes rules that govern our lives and usurp our sovereign laws..so those who say the UN doesnt rule us are wrong..and this sort of treaty/law set up will increase as global governance is forged around the world..

401

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~ by seeker401 on January 31, 2011.