Cuba’s Castro Says Banning Coca Is Like Taking Tea From English

[El Presidente]

May 31, 2010, 3:07 PM EDT

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-3...om-english.html

By Jonathan J. Levin

May 31 (Bloomberg) -- Former Cuban President Fidel Castro said the global ban on coca, the leaf used to make cocaine, is like taking away tea from the English.

The leaf, whose eradication is mandated by a 1961 United Nations treaty, is used as part of millennia-old traditions among Indians in Andean countries including Bolivia, Castro wrote in a “Reflections” column published on the Cuba Debate website.

“Prohibiting it is like saying to the English that they can’t consume tea, a healthy custom imported by the U.K. from Asia, which was conquered and colonized by them for centuries,” Castro wrote in the column titled “The Empire and Drugs.”

Peasants and miners in Bolivia chew coca, a stimulant, to ward off hunger and ease headaches. Bolivia is the world’s third-largest cocaine producer after Colombia and Peru, according to a UN report.

The leader of the 1959 Cuban Revolution said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his counterpart in Bolivia, Evo Morales, are “working especially hard” to combat the production and trafficking of cocaine, which he said is different from the raw leaf.

The coca leaf contains less than 1 percent of the alkaloid that in large amounts can be used to make cocaine.

[Wicky]

Prohibition never keeps people from getting what they want!

[rfenst]

This is age-old custom of the indigenous people.

WTH is the problem?

[lemmycaution]

I know someone who has family in Peru and they use coca to make tea. They also chew the leaves while working in the fields. Must make working easier... I guess it's not too different from people who chew tobacco.

[Cohiba007]

Jimmy, will you please find us a source to order coca leaves?

[matthew261]

Coca tea is a nearly miraculous remedy for altitude sickness (no derivative puns about being high on cocaine intended).

[Ryan]

OF course people should be allowed to carry on with their tradition of chewing whatever they want, however the stuff they chew comes from the same plant that makes the powder that people in other parts of the world shoot each other over. People not interested in the history would have a hard time separating the two.

It's like cigarettes and cigars. It's all tobacco, nobody who is not interested in cigars differentiates.

[bassman]

Coca tea is a nearly miraculous remedy for altitude sickness (no derivative puns about being high on cocaine intended).

Absolutely! I drank plenty of it while in the Peruvian Andes. It's on the dining car menu on the Central Peru Railroad, who's summit is just under 15,000 feet (spectacular ride!). While staying in Huancavalica (just over 12,000 feet) it was served in our hotel lobby & every restaurant. Not only does it help with the altitude but it also keeps you warm. Mighty chilly that high up.

[cigcars]

Absolutely! I drank plenty of it while in the Peruvian Andes. It's on the dining car menu on the Central Peru Railroad, who's summit is just under 15,000 feet (spectacular ride!). While staying in Huancavalica (just over 12,000 feet) it was served in our hotel lobby & every restaurant. Not only does it help with the altitude but it also keeps you warm. Mighty chilly that high up.

?? Is it addicting?

[LeafLover]

I don't recall seeing any of these indigenous people who are chewing coca leaves shooting each other for a prime drug spot. Just leave them to their age-old customs.

[bassman]

?? Is it addicting?

Not at all. Very mild stimulent. Take a load of coca leaves to be refined into cocaine, plus lots of nasty chemical. I have no use for cocaine, except for the Rev. Gary Davis song...

"You take Sally

I'll take Sue

Really doesn't matter

Either one will do

Cocaine

Running 'round my brain"

[anacostiakat]

May 31, 2010, 3:07 PM EDT

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-3...om-english.html

By Jonathan J. Levin

May 31 (Bloomberg) -- Former Cuban President Fidel Castro said the global ban on coca, the leaf used to make cocaine, is like taking away tea from the English.

The leaf, whose eradication is mandated by a 1961 United Nations treaty, is used as part of millennia-old traditions among Indians in Andean countries including Bolivia, Castro wrote in a “Reflections” column published on the Cuba Debate website.

“Prohibiting it is like saying to the English that they can’t consume tea, a healthy custom imported by the U.K. from Asia, which was conquered and colonized by them for centuries,” Castro wrote in the column titled “The Empire and Drugs.”

Peasants and miners in Bolivia chew coca, a stimulant, to ward off hunger and ease headaches. Bolivia is the world’s third-largest cocaine producer after Colombia and Peru, according to a UN report.

The leader of the 1959 Cuban Revolution said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his counterpart in Bolivia, Evo Morales, are “working especially hard” to combat the production and trafficking of cocaine, which he said is different from the raw leaf.

The coca leaf contains less than 1 percent of the alkaloid that in large amounts can be used to make cocaine.

He is just angling to get more work outta his people. Sounds like a commie plot to me. Power to the People!

[sandholm]

Coca tea is a nearly miraculous remedy for altitude sickness (no derivative puns about being high on cocaine intended).

As a high altitude and as a extreme high altitude climber (above 8000 meter, aka the death zone) i STRONGLY want to point out that coco leaf is NOT a remedy for altitude sickness. It removes the syndrome, such as head ache, like taking a pain killer for a toothache (but it wont remove the toothache). During the coca intoxication your body might adjust to the thin air but the coca tea will not help you more then an aspirin (and the aspirin thins your blood with is even better).

Above 2500 meters you can die, period, and the ONLY remedy for altitude sickness is only one thing, descend, nothing else.

We had a family from Paris who came to Switzerland and went up to around 3000 meter with a cable car, the kid vomited very shortly, an hour later the kid went into a coma even that the rescue helicopter were send the kid died in the evening.

Sorry for the rant, but as a member of the alpine club and the local rescue team I know from a personal level that altitude should not be taken lightly.

Have fun in that mountains, but stay safe, this is not cowboy land, this is serious adventure.

0-2500 meter no problem, you are safe

2500 - 6000 meters, you can ascend in 2-3 days with acclimatization and knowledge

6000 - 7500 meters, your need knowledge and you need to know yourself, you can be rescued but if so you are lucky, going up to this hight mean that your a willing to risk your life

7500+ your are now responsible for your own life, no one can rescue you, your loose your glove, your are dead, you loose your googles, your are dead, your cant walk, your are dead.. .... you are dead to everyone you know and your have to bring yourself back to the living.

Mountains are not fair or unfair, they are just dangerous.(Reinhold Messner)

"No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible." — George Burns

The mountains will always be there, the trick is to make sure you are too. (Hervey Voge)

Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence. (Hermann Buhl)

and why I climb and freeride...

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live. Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom. Only a person who risks is free. The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; and the realist adjusts the sails.” (William Arthur Ward)

cheers

[MIKA27]

Coca tea is a nearly miraculous remedy for altitude sickness (no derivative puns about being high on cocaine intended).

My wifes family in Chile chew coca leaves for that exact reason as some of my wifes family live in the North where the altitiude is quite high and the air is dry. I tried it whilst there earlier this year. Not bad.

[Ken Gargett]

As a high altitude and as a extreme high altitude climber (above 8000 meter, aka the death zone) i STRONGLY want to point out that coco leaf is NOT a remedy for altitude sickness. It removes the syndrome, such as head ache, like taking a pain killer for a toothache (but it wont remove the toothache). During the coca intoxication your body might adjust to the thin air but the coca tea will not help you more then an aspirin (and the aspirin thins your blood with is even better).

Above 2500 meters you can die, period, and the ONLY remedy for altitude sickness is only one thing, descend, nothing else.

We had a family from Paris who came to Switzerland and went up to around 3000 meter with a cable car, the kid vomited very shortly, an hour later the kid went into a coma even that the rescue helicopter were send the kid died in the evening.

Sorry for the rant, but as a member of the alpine club and the local rescue team I know from a personal level that altitude should not be taken lightly.

Have fun in that mountains, but stay safe, this is not cowboy land, this is serious adventure.

0-2500 meter no problem, you are safe

2500 - 6000 meters, you can ascend in 2-3 days with acclimatization and knowledge

6000 - 7500 meters, your need knowledge and you need to know yourself, you can be rescued but if so you are lucky, going up to this hight mean that your a willing to risk your life

7500+ your are now responsible for your own life, no one can rescue you, your loose your glove, your are dead, you loose your googles, your are dead, your cant walk, your are dead.. .... you are dead to everyone you know and your have to bring yourself back to the living.

Mountains are not fair or unfair, they are just dangerous.(Reinhold Messner)

"No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible." — George Burns

The mountains will always be there, the trick is to make sure you are too. (Hervey Voge)

Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence. (Hermann Buhl)

and why I climb and freeride...

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live. Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom. Only a person who risks is free. The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; and the realist adjusts the sails.” (William Arthur Ward)

cheers

highest i ever went was about 19,000 feet and i agree with this. we had a mate who i had been with every day of the climb until the last morning on the way to the top. he just looked at me half way up and said he had a problem and had to go. i was stunned as no sign of it till that moment but he headed back very quickly. probably saved his life.

i believe that even hillary was afflicted on some climbs - not everest - and had to head back down.

love those quotes.

[scinmyheart]

scary that "the sickness" can slip up on you so quickly

[reg]

I don't see anyone complaining about it. I doubt anyone is against it for any reasons other than so it can't be turned into cocaine

[Mel]

Leave people alone. Period. I hate governments or groups that feel like they have to dictate to others what to do.

[sandholm]

Leave people alone. Period. I hate governments or groups that feel like they have to dictate to others what to do.

I just assume that you feel like this about all interfering

- driving

- drugs

- taxing

- heroin

- murder

- assult

- teorrism (I just hate when i cant do it)

- child pornography (you always have to go child pornography to win a conversation...)

For me government has to step in when people go mad and start effecting other people, or using things that are destructive and counter-civilizational.