Legalize Coca

In Bolivia President Evo Morales want to to spend upwards of 300,000 dollars to invest in and develop legal markets for the coca leaf, the source of cocaine. Morales, a former union leader in the coca growing industry, announced the plans in Chapare, a coca growing region in central Bolivia. Morales hopes his plan to invest the coca leaf in legal markets such as tea, flour, and medicines will limit the crop's use in the drug trade. Much of the international community including the general body of the U.N. and the U.S., do not like Morales' new policy toward the coca leaf because it is regarded by most as a "Schedule I" narcotic, the most illegal of all drug categories which includes cocaine, heroin, and opium among others. It will certainly be interesting to see how Morales' new policies work and what the international reaction will be.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080312/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/bolivia_coca;_ylt=Atl8YQn.5bJJN7UA2JOJOFy3IxIF