MOSCOW. Feb 25 (Interfax) - The State Duma has passed a draft law to state Russia's objection to Bolivia's bid for international legal permission to grow coca on its territory.
The 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 gave its signatories temporary permission for the production of coca leaves and their use for chewing and if that was traditional on their territory.
The provision, which Bolivia made use of, expired in 2001, and in 2011 the South American country denounced the convention but warned that it was willing to rejoin it if a reservation is inserted in the pact allowing the chewing of coca and its use them for medical and cultural purposes on Bolivian territory.
The Russian bill against the Bolivian initiative was introduced by President Vladimir Putin.
"The Single Convention was signed in New York in March 1961 and is one of the fundamental documents regulating international legal control of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors," Putin's special representative for international cooperation in combating terrorism and transnational organized crime, Alexander Zmeyevsky, said in presenting the draft law to the Duma.
An explanatory note to the bill argued that such a reservation might trigger cocaine trafficking and "would set a dangerous precedent that may be used by other states in creating more liberal regimes of drug control that the Convention prescribes."
In answering questions from deputies, Zmeyevsky said "this problem must be handled very carefully because it affects Russian citizens as well." Increasing numbers of Russians visit Latin America, he explained.
He said there would "special explanations" if the draft law were passed.