Posted on 12/24/2005 7:22:57 AM PST by FerdieMurphy
LA PAZ, Bolivia - (AP)President-elect Evo Morales persuaded the European Union to fund a study to track what happens to Bolivia's coca leaf and how much is used in the drug trade.
The European Union has agreed to a request from Bolivia's President-elect Evo Morales to help determine how much of the nation's coca production and consumption goes to legal uses, and how much is used to make cocaine.
The EU will contribute the $499,800 to finance the study, but will not participate in its implementation, Angel Gutiérrez, First Secretary of the EU mission here told The Associated Press on Friday.
Morales still has his own coca farm and came to prominence as the leader of a group of coca growers opposed to U.S.-backed coca eradication efforts. He's often called for research on what exactly happens with the coca leaf now grown in 27,000 hectares across the country.
Coca leaf is used to make cocaine, but also has some legal uses, including in ancestral religious ceremonies. Indians also chew it for fighting fatigue and as medicine. Morales says he wants ''zero narcotrafficking'' while also preserving the plant's legitimate uses.
This study shouldn't cost 50 cents. None of Bolivia's coca ends up in Hershey bars, but then Evo already knew that.
I think coca leaves and cacao beans are two different things.
I can save them the time. Coca is grown in Bolivia, processed and refined, delivered to Europe, and disappears into the noses of self-worshipping EU bureaufunctionaries.
Half a million dollars ? Gad !
This doesn't exactly sound like what he was saying prior to the election, does it?
LOL. I'm glad to hear Americans no longer do cocaine.
What do they do on the West side of the Atlantic nowadays? Lemonade?
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