In accordance with a request made by the Government of Peru (April 1947) to which the Government of Bolivia adhered later (April 1949) the Economic and Social Council by resolution 159 (VII) IV (August 1948) sent a Commission of Enquiry to these two countries in order to investigate the effects of chewing the coca leaf and the possibilities of limiting its production and controlling its distribution. The Commission in the conclusions of its report declared that this habit induces harmful effects and decided in favour of the possibility of suppressing it gradually as well as of the possibility of limiting the production and of controlling the distribution of the coca leaf.
Pages: 1 to 1
Creation Date: 1952/01/01
In accordance with a request made by the Government of Peru (April 1947) to which the Government of Bolivia adhered later (April 1949) the Economic and Social Council by resolution 159 (VII) IV (August 1948) sent a Commission of Enquiry to these two countries in order to investigate the effects of chewing the coca leaf and the possibilities of limiting its production and controlling its distribution. The Commission in the conclusions of its report declared that this habit induces harmful effects and decided in favour of the possibility of suppressing it gradually as well as of the possibility of limiting the production and of controlling the distribution of the coca leaf.
By resolution 395 (XIII) (August 1951) the Economic and Social Council decided to send the report and the additional observations of the Commission to the interested governments with the request for the communication of their observations thereon to the Secretary-General of the United Nations before 1 December 1951. The Council also requested the Commission on Narcotic Drugs to examine the problem of the coca leaf during its seventh session, taking into consideration all available information, and to submit its recommendations on the matter to the Council as soon as might be possible thereafter.
The problem of the chewing of the coca leaf is a complex one. As it is clearly indicated in the report of the Commission of Enquiry many factors-social, economic, medical, sanitary, administrative and also housing, etc. - contribute to its intricacies.
The Bulletin on Narcotics, from its inception and in accordance with the purpose for which it was created, has been anxious to publish technical and scientific articles on problems concerning narcotic drugs and related questions in order to make known authorized opinions on these problems and their implications.
Bearing this in mind, the editors have devoted a large part of this issue to the coca-leaf problem. The Bulletin requested well-known specialists in the matter to contribute to a kind of compendium of authorized opinions on various aspects of the problem and gave them full freedom to deal with the subject in their field of specialization. The authors approached were: Professor Dr. Alberto Hurtado, member of the Faculty of the University of Lima, Peru; Professor Dr. Vicente Zapata Ortiz of the same Faculty; Mr. Aristides Pacheco Gamboa, President of the Agrarian Society of Cuzco, Peru; Engineer Luis Mi?ano Director of the Mining Technical Institute, Cerro de Pasco, Peru; Professor Dr. Martin Cárdenas of the University of Cochabamba, Bolivia; Agricultural Engineer Raúl Pérez Alcalá from the Ministry of Agriculture and member of the National Commission on Coca Leaf, La Paz, Bolivia; Mr. Abel Solíz S. from the Association of Landowners of Yungas, La Paz, Bolivia; Dr. Eduardo Malleza, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Dr. Luis A. León, Quito, Ecuador; and Professor Dr. Jorge Bejarano from the Faculty of Medicine, Bogotá, Colombia. Also Dr. Pablo O. Wolff, Chief of the Addiction Producing Drugs Section of the World Health Organization.
As a result of these requests, the present issue of the Bulletin contains articles by Messrs. Cárdenas, Pérez Alcalá, Abel Solíz, Zapata Ortiz, León and Wolff.
