Beyond Declassification: Detoxifying narratives…

"Beyond Declassification: Detoxifying Narratives Around the Coca Leaf" is a conversation to challenge the hegemonic negative connotation attributed to the plant, which has persisted through decades of misinformation and prejudice, and continues to generate violence and innocent victims across South America.

Participants:

• Ambassador Leonor Zalabata, Permanent Representative of Colombia to the UN
• Ambassador Diego Pary, Permanent Representative of Bolivia to the UN
• Wade Davis, Anthropologist and Researcher, University of British Columbia
• Kasia Malinowska, Director of Drug Policy at Open Society Foundations

The talk will focus on the following themes:

• What has been the impact of the war on drugs on the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America?
• How do Indigenous ancestral visions of coca relate to current scientific knowledge about the plant?
• How has the critical review process of coca progressed, and what is the status of the new dossier submitted to the WHO?
• What efforts are being made to detoxify the narrative surrounding the coca leaf?