The right of Bolivia’s indigenous Indian tribes to chew coca leaves, the main ingredient in cocaine, has caused major international disagreement, which could have a significant effect on global drugs policy. Bolivia has received a special exemption from the 1961 Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which controls international drugs policy. The exemption allows Bolivia’s indigenous people to chew the leaves. Bolivia had argued that the convention was in opposition to its new constitution, adopted in 2009, which says it must “protect native and ancestral coca” as part of its cultural heritage and maintains that coca “in its natural state ... is not a dangerous narcotic.”
What does Bolivia’s constitution say?
That coca should be protected Bolivia does not allow the consumption of dangerous drugs That it accepts the decisions of the 1961 Convention on Drugs That consumption of drugs, but not their distribution, is legal