spini4
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2003
- Messages
- 795
The next level of insanity in the War on Drugs targets Bolivia
The US War on Drugs has cost US taxpayers billions with questionable results, and that’s being charitable. It has also been responsible for the violation of civil liberties of countless citizens.
And that’s not even counting the damage it has done to foreign countries.
The War on Drugs newest target: the South American country of Bolivia. Bolivia has proposed lifting the 50 year UN ban on coca chewing citing it has “deep cultural and religious value” for the indigenous peoples of the Andes among other things.
In addition, according to author Steven Taylor, it is used as an appetite suppressant when chewed, allowing people to work through the day without stopping to eat–either for efficiency’s sake or because there is an insufficient supply of food.
Guess who will come out to file an objection against this benign proposal? That’s right, the United States.
According to Bolivian President Evo Morales defending the proposal, "How can it be possible that the coca leaf, which represents our identity, which is ancestral, be penalized?"
The US government argues that making an exception for the Bolivian proposal is “not good for the planet's efforts to control and eventually solve the problem of drug abuse.”
Nonsense, says SUNY at Stony Brook professor Paul Gootenberg who says there is not one scientific study that proves that coca is dangerous.
Gootenberg explains further:
"Traditionally the argument was that coca was basically cocaine and could be used illicitly to distill cocaine. But that was never realistic.”
Continue reading on Examiner.com: The next level of insanity in the War on Drugs targets Bolivia - http://www.examiner.com/offbeat-new...he-war-on-drugs-targets-bolivia#ixzz1BW1Cudci
The US War on Drugs has cost US taxpayers billions with questionable results, and that’s being charitable. It has also been responsible for the violation of civil liberties of countless citizens.
And that’s not even counting the damage it has done to foreign countries.
The War on Drugs newest target: the South American country of Bolivia. Bolivia has proposed lifting the 50 year UN ban on coca chewing citing it has “deep cultural and religious value” for the indigenous peoples of the Andes among other things.
In addition, according to author Steven Taylor, it is used as an appetite suppressant when chewed, allowing people to work through the day without stopping to eat–either for efficiency’s sake or because there is an insufficient supply of food.
Guess who will come out to file an objection against this benign proposal? That’s right, the United States.
According to Bolivian President Evo Morales defending the proposal, "How can it be possible that the coca leaf, which represents our identity, which is ancestral, be penalized?"
The US government argues that making an exception for the Bolivian proposal is “not good for the planet's efforts to control and eventually solve the problem of drug abuse.”
Nonsense, says SUNY at Stony Brook professor Paul Gootenberg who says there is not one scientific study that proves that coca is dangerous.
Gootenberg explains further:
"Traditionally the argument was that coca was basically cocaine and could be used illicitly to distill cocaine. But that was never realistic.”
Continue reading on Examiner.com: The next level of insanity in the War on Drugs targets Bolivia - http://www.examiner.com/offbeat-new...he-war-on-drugs-targets-bolivia#ixzz1BW1Cudci
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