Mama Coca is...

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Our English-language site in under construction but, meanwhile, you will find a good number of articles in English on MamaCoca.

MamaCoca is a Colombian environmental and human rights social organization active since 1998 and legally consolidated in France in 2003 under Loi 1901. The information posted by MamaCoca seeks to feed the "drug" debate from a documented and pluralist perspective.

MamaCoca, apart from being part of the International Drug-Policy Reform Movement, is also part of the wide “biodiverse” Colombian Environmental Movement which has been historically and actively committed to defending a silent devastated victim of Colombia’s Drug War: the Nation's’ natural resources.

MamaCoca is a specialized information platform on the complexity and diverse means through which the prohibition of plants and psychoactive substances ties in with extreme violence ,war and environnmental destruction in Colombia, particularly as concerns the Coca Leaf and its derivatives.

We are here proposing our extensive information by way of 7 chronological databases to promote the in-depth research Colombia so direly needs to know and understand the origins of this drug henomenon which has conditioned its history. This information is made available in order to contribute the knowledge required to design intelligent policies and regional plans for the building of more equitable societies where peace and local empowerment may prosper.

MamaCoca is here appealing to growers, users, legislators and antinarcotics agencies to incorporate environmental considerations in their agendas and drug policies and proposals. For your participation please contact us at mamacoca[at]mamacoca.org

We firmly believe that we can contribute to building a better world and are particularly grateful to the Open Society Foundations for making this encompassing dream possible.

We invite you to contribute to making MamaCoca sustainable in the long run to continue being a source of information and proposals by buying our products at the MamaCocaShop (under construcction).

Our history:

MamaCoca is one of the first sources of information on the drug issue in Colombia at a time when speaking drugs was considered a crime in country assailed by the Plan Colombia after years of implementing the Drug War and its ―and narcotics traffickers'― gradual incorporation in Colombia's institutions and daily life.

Founded in 1998, MamaCoca has been a lone battle in which many people have taken part, starting with its founding members María Mercedes Moreno, Darío González Posso and Mónica Juliana Lalinde. Many scholars, human rights activists and artists ―such as Gustavo Vejarano, Ramiro Arango y Mario Ossaba― have benevolently contributed to MamaCoca when the internet was but a shadow of the spider web it has become. Jean-Marc Langé’s (honorary member of the Pro-Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Foundation) voluntary help made it possible for us to go online in 2001. Andrés Medina helped us to give MamaCoca what it needed at the time to stay online and Alejandro Mejía, a young peasant leader, kept us in touch with our true cause: to demand respect for the lives and Human Rights of small growers of natural crops used for extracting substances to make chemical sustances.

MamaCoca owes its inspiration to the Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Relaciones Internacionales (IEPRI) de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia thanks to María Mercedes Moreno’s work there and Gonzalo Sánchez ‘s unconditional support for our advocacy. Many were the scholars who contributed their articles so MamaCcoa could go online. Alain Labrousse’s heartfelt motivation and example, Anthony Henmman and the first Colombian indigenous governor, Taita Floro, whose toast to MamaCoca gave us our name. The cooperation given to us by much larger organizations such as the peace organization Indepaz , the Jesuit Cinep and others allowed us to provide the information, arrange the meetings ad put forward the proposals much needed by Colombia to know the social aspects of the drug war so as to better design its future.

Without Ethan Nadelmann’s faith in us and his support and that of the Tides Foundation and others’ when we were at the breaking point, our work would not have been possible. At the present stage, the impulse given by the Open Society Foundation (OSF) to diversity in drugs and Human Rights approaches is allowing us to renew MamaCoca and take advantage of the social networks to advocate for the environmental approach to drugs which is so direly needed if Colombia, the world, is to have a future.

Colombian politicians are beginning to come around to what has been MamaCoca’s consistent message: the absurdity of trying to fight drugs through self-destructive measures such as aerial spraying of toxic chemical mixtures. Currently, we are appealing to crop growers, drug users, processors, narcotics traffickers and antinarcotics agencies to become aware of their main duty which is to Colombia’s environmental legacy; for our children, our Nation and Humanity

This renewed version of MamaCoca is addressed to them, to researchers (for whom we have specially added an internal search engine), and those legislators who are seeking to regulate those plants and substances which are currently prohibited. May they may find conciliatory answers to the psychoactive plants and substances issue that respond to public health needs and where environmental considerations are also envisioned.

Once again, we invite you to please contribute to MamaCoca's and its producers' sustainability by buying our products at the MamaCocaShop (under construcction).

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