Peruvian Politicians in Coca Protest

The drug war has been condemned, ridiculed and lamented, and now, in a more original critique, it has been masticated.

Dozens of members of Peru's congress chewed the coca leaf in protest at a UN recommendation to criminalize traditional uses of the Andean plant. The politicians munched on the raw ingredient of cocaine during a boisterous session this week to defend the plant's medicinal and cultural value. "The coca leaf has existed for thousands of years," one congresswoman, Hilaria Supa, told Reuters. "It's part of our agriculture, our food and our medicine. It's sacred. The UN doesn't know our culture."

This month the UN's International Narcotics Control Board urged Peru and Bolivia to ban coca chewing, which is especially popular among indigenous people in the highlands, as part of a crackdown on cocaine production. The US has argued that coca growers exploit the ancient habit of leaf chewing as legal cover for crops destined for the illegal laboratories of drug cartels.

Critics say the drug war, funded largely by the US and Europe, has been costly and ineffective.