Andean teacup

The article Storm in an Andean teacup is presenting facts about the possible banning of the coca leave used in tea in everyday use to ward off, fatigue, sickness and promote mental alertness. This is a century old tradition for the people of South America however debate arises in the cultivating of the coca plant which when refined becomes the street drug cocaine . There is lies the issue, since the United Nations convention on narcotics along with other government officials continually work to fight the war on drugs .Drug trafficking is alarming rising and the fear that allowing this plant to remain a legally crop will only continue to allow the drug number to rise, is becoming more realistic each passing year.

The local officials wish to keep this century old tradition of tea use alive, and plan on instating stricter monitoring on the cultivation of the plant to avoid the leaves being used for other purposes. Some feel however this is not enough and want to ban the plant completely. This would mean loss of tradition for the culture and health benefits as well. I believe the plant offers many benefits when consumed properly and should not be taken away from the culture. As a homeopathic cure it has been used for centuries and the people of South America should not be robbed of that, due to the criminal act of drug use. There are many medications, chemicals and other devices that could also be abused and turned into something harmful such a street drugs, but banning all of these will not prevent usage.

With regulation and monitoring of the plant, the people of the countries should be able to prevent to the best they can, the illegal use of the plant. Unfortunately, there will always be those who brake and abuse the law. When we start forcing cultures to remove traditions, where do we stop? My initial thought was that it was a far stretch from language learning to the banning of plant. However, when a culture starts to become robbed of their traditions and