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News > Bolivia

War on Drugs Has Failed in Bolivia: Evo Morales

  • Together with representatives of 53 member nations, President Evo Morales attended the 62 session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND).

    Together with representatives of 53 member nations, President Evo Morales attended the 62 session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). | Photo: EFE

Published 14 March 2019
Opinion

The president said that the universal strategies are ineffective in Bolivia and they are developing their own anti-drug initiatives.

The U.S. anti narcotics initiatives have failed in Bolivia, President Evo Morales wrote in a Twitter post from Austria, Thursday, noting that new strategies are underway.

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From the 62 session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the South American president tweeted, “The so-called war on drugs has failed and that is why we are forced to develop new anti-drug models that recognize the reality of each country.”

“We #Bolivia built a new anti-drug policy and demanded the use and ancestral consumption of the coca leaf. We appreciate the cooperation of the #EuropeanUnion, which accompanies us in the fight against drug trafficking, without conditions,” Morales said.

Preventative campaigns against the consumption of drugs and psychotics have been successful while simultaneously managing to maintain respect for rights of coca workers in the region.

“When we arrived at the government we inherited a model alien to the Bolivian reality, which did not take into account the traditional and medicinal uses of the coca leaf. On the contrary, it stigmatized, criminalized, and repressed producers. It was a geopolitical control mechanism,” the president wrote.

However, throughout his administration, which began on in 2006, the Indigenous politician prioritized the rights of the rural agricultural sectors, using legislation to protect farmers and their coca crops.

"We recognized and legally protected coca in the Constitution because it is part of the identity of Bolivia, in 2013 we managed to include a reservation from the Vienna Convention that decriminalized the cocaine," he said.

The international meeting, attended by its 53 nations, was organized to "promote an exchange among member states on the current state of the global drug policy and adopt resolutions on specific measures and issues," the World Association on Development and Drug Policy reported.

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