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Show 182 to the concepts of standards and transgression. The latter brings up the problem, which has been very little studied, of how to transmit to children new problems and needs of a changing socio-cultural structure and the relations of the change with the existence of transgressing personalities. Ricketts, C. A. (Peru). "La Masticacion de las Hojas de Coca en el Peru," America Indigena. XIV No. 2 (April, 1954), pp. 113-126. English Summary: In putting forward the case against coca-chewing as practiced in Peru, I present arguments based on the opinion of those best qualified to judge this question, experts in Pharmacology and Toxiocology and I also quote freely from the Report from the Special Commission of Study, sent to Peru expressly to investigate the mastication of coca leaves in all its aspects. The professors of Pharmacology agree with the fiadings of the Commission in condemning outright coca chewing. The Expert Committee on Drugs liable to produce addiction, of the World Health Organization in Geneva, are of the opinion that coca chewing must be defined and treated as an addiction and they are the highest authority available. All these opinions are diametrically opposed to those of Dr. Monge, whose point of view is, after all, merely personal. As a result of their exhaustive studies, the Commission came to definite conclusions and had no hesitation in declaring that "briefly the harmful effects of chewing coca leaf, from the point of view of the individual and of the nation, are the following: 1) It inhibits the sensation of hunger and thus maintains by a vicious circle a constant state of malnutrition; 2) It induces in the individual undesirable changes of an intellectual and moral character. It certainly hinders the chewers chances of obtaining a higher social standard; 3) It reduces the economic yield of productive work and therefore maintains a low economic standard of life." The production as well as the consumption of coca is increasing at an alarming rate. In 1930 the production was 5,200,434 kgms. and in 1952 the official figure was over 10,000,000 kgms., which means a progressive annual average increase of 218,116 kgms. At the accepted calculation that 140 kgms. of coca leaves are needed to obtain 1 kgm. of cocaine, ten million kilogramms contain 71,428 kgms. of cocaine, or over 71 tons of the alcaloid! The amount' needed for legitimate uses in the world is only 5,208 kgms. The famous authority Dr. Gutierrez Noriega calls attention to the great increase in the production of coca being simultaneous with a decrease in the production and consumption of food by the Indians. |