On Coca

While Hugo hogged the spotlight at the UN, and the American media chased Mahmoud all over New York, an important speaker was ignored at the UN: Evo Morales of Bolivia.

Apparently the "evil" coca leaf is a mild stimulant, that perks us up like coffee, when brewed into tea or chewed like tobacco. Medical reports says it does no harm and may be beneficial. But the US suppresses all such reports.

I was happy to see John Tierney of the NY Times writing today about Morales and the US's dumb war on drugs. I don't normally agree with much Tierney says, he being a right-winger and me being anything but. But he writes about how counter-productive it is for the US to try to destroy the opium fields of Afghanistan and the coca plants of South America.

Here's his excellent quote: "The Saudis can fight alcoholism by forbidding the sale of Jack Daniels, but we’d think they were crazy if they ordered us to eradicate fields of barley in Tennessee."

I didn't know that Afghan farmers are not even allowed to sell their product to pharmaceutical companies. How dumb is that? Destroy their fields, deny them even legitimate business, and offer them nothing in return? A policy doomed to failure.

Why does the war on drugs focus on producers instead of on users? The only focus on users is on making sure they are thrown in jail and offered little or no medical support. This seems terribly unenlightened.