Last year I had the pleasure of visiting Chile and spending a few days in the lAtacama Desert, in the high Andes. lTo deal with the altitude-induced lheadaches I used the local remedy of lchewing coca-leaves and drinking mate l(coca-leaf tea). Following the Spanish lconquest these local remedies were lbanned by the Catholic Church as being lheathen, though the ban was rapidly loverturned by the Spanish overlords as lit resulted in work productivity of the l'natives' declining! In 1961 the coca-leaf lwas again banned, despite there being no levidence of its being addictive or harmful, las part of the absurd 1961 UN Single lConvention on Narcotic Drugs. For most lAndean coca-leaf chewers the ban has lhad little impact, although in some places lthe coca-farmers have had their crops and llivelihoods destroyed as part of the US- ldriven 'war on drugs'.
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