Colombia, Bolivia to ask UN to remove coca leaf from narcotics list

FILE PHOTO: Coca leaves that for sale are pictured at a market during the reopening of the coca market of the Departmental Association of Coca Producers (ADEPCOCA) after the organisation's building was partially burned down following months of protests against the market, in La Paz, Bolivia October 10, 2022. REUTERS/Claudia Morales

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia and Bolivia will jointly ask the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs to remove coca leaves from its list of prohibited substances and accept the plant's traditional uses, Colombia's government said on Wednesday.

The proposal, which the two countries will make at the commission's session in Vienna in mid-March, is a bid to de-stigmatize conversations about the problem of drugs, Colombia's vice-minister for multilateral affairs, Laura Gil, said in a statement.