Bolivia contemplates legalisation of coca

The Bolivian government is considering a plan to resume cultivation of the raw ingredient in cocaine in a remote jungle basin, allowing farmers to cultivate small plots of the crop in a move aimed at averting nationwide strikes and unrest.

“We’ve begun serious dialogues with coca growers with the aim of combating drug trafficking and maintaining social tranquility,” Vice Minister of Social Defence Ernesto Justiniano has told The Associated Press. “And one of the alternatives is to allow the possibility of half a cato (0.20 acre) to every coca farmer.”