Fair Trade Coke

Our main focus is to strengthen Latin American communities that are victims of the Drug War. Forced displacement, violence, homicides; daily phenomena that are threatening a sense of security and dignity. At the moment, the Drug War affects already marginalized communities. We will empower these communities.

If we get the honor to be selected as a winner, we will invest in two main purposes:

• Empowering and investing in local communities in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Mexico.
• Creating awareness and promoting humane and sustainable drug policies

Our activities that need funding are:

• Empower Latin American communities and social leaders in lobbying with governmental organizations
• Empower Latin American communities and social leaders in participating at conferences, like the Vienna NGO Committee on Narcotic Drugs
• Publishing articles for international magazines
• Creating awareness at the general public, by 
  • Organizing debates and events
  • Podcasts
  • Developing movies that are produced by local filmers

While I was an Anthropology-student in Amsterdam, I noticed the normality of recreational drug use amongst young adults in the Netherlands. Simultaneously, news outlets, documentaries and series like Narcos broadcast the severe harm the production chain and trade of drugs cause. 

With the rise of products like fairtrade coffee, slavefree chocolate and slow fashion, Western consumers are increasingly aware about the origins and the labor behind the products they consume. This made me connect the Western consumption of cocaine with the violent and corrupt production chain that dominantly prevails in Latin America. It inspired me to develop a constructive drug policy: a drug policy without crime, violence and corruption.

In 2016 I started the Fairtrade Coke foundation. Ever since, I dedicate myself to build a humane and ecofriendly coca and cocaine-related drug policy. I’ve conducted anthropological research in Bolivia and Colombia and build a network of many activists, social leaders, professors and cultivators of coca.

My goal for the future is to build a connected world, in which communities and nations live together in harmony and reciprocity, and in which humans have a symbiotic relationship with nature. I truly believe a humane and sustainable drug policy contributes to this aim.

The Fairtrade Coke foundation develops humane and ecofriendly drug policies. Globally, the coca and cocaine- related War on Drugs has generated a lot of violence, corruption and homicides. Also, it has caused deforestation and intoxication of land. In Mexico for example, drug-related homicides rose to 33,341 in 2018; an increase of 15 percent from the previous year, and a record high. Due to violent drug gangs, 5,576,000 Colombians have been internally displaced. Annually, about 35,000 Colombians seek a safe home elsewhere. Cocaine trafficking may account for up to 30 per cent of the total forest loss in Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua over the past decade.

In our mission to develop and promote sustainable alternatives, people, plants and planet are our driving forces. In order to achieve a humane and sustainable policy, we developed the following objectives:

Our activities are:

• Lobbying with governmental organizations
• Participating at conferences, like the Vienna NGO Committee on Narcotic Drugs
• Publishing articles for international and national magazines
• Creating awareness at the general public
• Organizing debates and events
• Documentaries & our own Movie Channel

The War on Drugs-policy has failed: cocaine production has increased, the price of cocaine has stayed similar and amount of consumption has increased as well. The current policy did not have the desired effect. As a result, many marginalized communities have been displaced and drug related crime has infiltrated many countries and continents, harming many innocent people.

However, after researching local communities in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Mexico, we've concluded that there are humane and sustainable alternatives. 

Did you know for example, that the coca plant has many nutritional, medicinal and spiritual qualities? It can be used as an anesthetic, works as a friendly plantbased stimulant, and it contains a high concentration of fibres and calcium. For many reasons, coca is considered to be a sacred plant in South America. Unfortunately, the coca plant has many misconceptions. Based on pressure from the West, coca has a bad name and is falsely listed in the same categorie as cocaine. This is why destigmatizing the coca plant is one of our biggest missions. In the future we would love to enable a global market of coca products. This is a great economic opportunity for Latin American countries. 

Network:

We've developed close ties with indigenous and marginalized communities, with social leaders and with researchers. Through our active participation in governmental institutions and international conferences, we've also established close links with policy makers.

Awareness: 

Through our network with indigenous and marginalized communities we are able to inform the general public refreshing insights, like for example the health benefits of the coca plant. 

Through our articles, podcasts and movie channel we offer a platform for stigmatized, criminalized and marginalized people.

We’ve developed awareness in Europe about the relationship between cocaine consumption and the drug related violence and crime in Latin America. Ever since, we’ve opened a national debate on what kind of policies are able to diminish violence.  

Empowerment:

Through our network we are able to mediate between indigenous and marginalized communities and media and governmental institutions.