The President of Bolivia burned a sheet of Coca at the UN conference to prove its harmlessness

Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, decided in an original way to express his attitude towards drugs at a meeting of the UN Commission on narcotic drugs in Vienna. Offended by the fact that Coca’s popular in his country is considered a drug, the president took out a leaf of plants and began to chew it defiantly. According to Morales, perhaps Coca is a stimulant, but absolutely harmless.

According to Vesti.ru TV channel, the conference members nevertheless refused to believe in Morales's arguments and condemned his gesture.

The President of Bolivia is an ardent supporter of the revival of the traditional Coca culture in his country. Evo Morales even declared the plant a national treasure in accordance with the constitution adopted in February 2009.

According to RIA Novosti , Bolivia ranks the third place in the world for the production of Koki sheet. The plant serves as the main raw material to obtain a potent drug of cocaine and its derivatives. Columbia retains the first place, where 150 thousand hectares are occupied with coats, the second is percussion with 97 thousand hectares.

By agreement, which Bolivia signed with the UN Commission on narcotic drugs back in 1961, the country had to completely eradicate Coca for 25 years. However, this never happened.

On the eve of his departure to Vienna, Morales said that he was going to convince the UN commissioners to reconsider the legislation providing for the punishment for growing coca, since this is included in his "obligations as the president and the head of the country."

As Morales noted, Coca's cultivation has a thousand -year history and is inextricably linked with the traditions of the people of Bolivia. According to the president, a strict punishment for growing Coca is a "provocation against the identity and culture" of the Bolivian people.

As Evo Morales, a cocaine leaf, has repeatedly emphasized, is primarily used in traditional medicine as a medicine and a food supplement useful for human health, as well as in religious ceremonies, and not for the production of a drug.

At the same time, Morales advocates an active fight against drug trafficking. Over the past two years alone, about 18 thousand hectares of illegal landing of Coca have been exterminated in the country.

The agreement between Russia and Bolivia on cooperation in this area was signed during the visit of Morales to Moscow in February 2009.

According to experts, after in November last year on the territory of Bolivia, by order of Evo Morales, the US Office for Combating drugs was completely suspended , drug altivities from Bolivia sharply grew. Then Morales accused this American department of economic support of the regions of the country, whose authorities are in opposition to central leadership. Now Bolivia especially needs Russia as a partner in combating drugs.