The case Coca Nasa: a legal analysis of the policy of the Colombian state in the marketing of food and beverages derived from coca leaf produced by indigenous communities

Abstract

This paper analyzes the problems that represents for the cultural diversity and the recognition the prohibition, originated in an act of the INVIMA (National Institute of Surveillance on Medicines and Food), of foods and drinks made with coca leaf, produced by indigenous communities from different regions of Colombia, focusing the analysis in the case of Coca Nasa, an enterprise belonging to natives from Calderas, Cauca. The text then offers an interpretation to the internal and international legal system in the matter of fi ght against drugs, harmonized with the respect towards the cultural diversity and the immaterial patrimony. Likewise, it pretends to refute the thesis maintained by the INVIMA, according to which the coca products can be distributed only inside the indigenous territories; arguing how such restriction is unconstitutional because it creates a segregationist society. It also studies the formal problems of the act of the INVIMA, proposing legal alternatives to attack that act.