Position Paper of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Discussing the impact of drug use on the increase in crime in developing

countries.

Bolivia as a member of The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL)

believes that drug use is a huge problem in developing countries. In 2020 around 284 million
people from all around the world of ages 15-64 admitted that they had used narcotics. This is
a 26 percent increase over the last decade. The latest trends have shown that citizens of
underdeveloped nations are more likely to turn to drugs as they have to cope with economic
and social disparities. There is also a problem of drug trading and producing, which results in
the growth of the crime rate. Moreover in a lot of emergent countries such as Peru,
Venezuela or Colombia that is the main coefficient of criminality.

Our history shows the problem of drug use very well. In 1982 the government set up
a centrally-controlled agency to be responsible for the procurement and distribution of drugs,
with a view to making basic drugs available throughout the country. There was a
disagreement in Bolivia’s leadership if drugs should be sold as medicine or as commercial
goods. In 2009 our former president, Evo Morales, requested the deletion of articles in the
UN 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs prohibiting the chewing of the coca leaf. It
had been a very important step that was followed by initiating the WHO procedure to
withdraw the coca leaf from Schedule I of the 1961 Convention.

In July of 1987 the government created a new section of Bolivian National Police. It is
called Fuerza Especial de Lucha Contra el Narcotráfico (FELCN)1. Its main goal is to fight
the country's drug trade. It mainly focuses on the production of cocaine. Thanks to this
section of our national police the seizure of drugs in Bolivia went up from 5 tons (in 2000) to
29 tons (2010) in just about ten years. There has also been created the Unidad Ejecutora de
Lucha Integral Contra el Narcotráfico (UELICN) 2. UELICN impels, with its own financial
resources, the invigoration of the fight against drug trafficking.

Our fight strategy against drugs is well written in our document called “Estrategia de
Lucha Contra el Narcotráfico y Reducción de Cultivos Excedentarios de Coca 2011-2015”
where it is said:
“Strategy will reaffirm the political will of reducing the potential
of the cocaine production in the country, through effective measures
of reduction of the offer and preventing actions for the drug
consumption, with complete respect for the Human rights.”
To expand this formulation, the reduction of the cocaine production contains three pillars
which are: reduction of the drug offer, reduction of the drug demand and reduction of surplus

1 Fuerza Especial de Lucha Contra el Narcotráfico (FELCN) - Special Force to Fight Drug
Trafficking

2 Unidad Ejecutora de Lucha Integral Contra el Narcotráfico (UELICN) - Executor Unit of the
Integral Fight Against Drug trafficking
cultivations of the coca leaf. Each of these pillars have their own programs signed to them.
Reduction of the offer consists of prohibition, control and monitoring of chemical substances,
control of legitimation of illicit earnings and related crimes and confiscated goods. The main
coefficients of reduction of the demand are prevention system, treatment, rehabilitation and
reintegration system and research and studies system. Lastly, in the reduction of the
demand and reduction of surplus cultivations of the coca leaf, three programs will be applied:
reduction of the cultivations of the coca leaf, impact mitigation and social control. In our
opinion by combining all these sub-items, we can create a well-functioning anti-drug policy.
From Bolivia’s perspective, the help of well developed countries is very important for the
emergent nations, as they have more means in fighting this problem. If we work together we
may change the world for the better.

Sources:
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/unodc-world-drug-report-2022
https://ocindex.net/country/bolivia
https://recoveryfirst.org/blog/treatment/drug-use-and-addiction-increasing-in-developing-
countries/
https://www.tni.org/en/publication/about-drug-law-reform-in-bolivia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcotics_in_Bolivia#Narcotics_trafficking
https://www.jstor.org/stable/45088712
http://www.cicad.oas.org/mem/reports/7/Full_Eval/Bolivia-7thRd-ENG.pdf
https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/bolivias-felcn-has-seized-14-4-tons-of-cocaine-in-
2015/#.ZCMdivbP3EY