Current Scheduling Status
Year(s) and type of review / ECDD meetings
Drug Class
Recommendation (from TRS)
ECDD Technical summary
Previous review
Coca-leaf chewing was reviewed at the third and fourth meetings of the Committee, which concluded that it was a form of "addiction" (21, 22). The background document used for this assessment was the United Nations Report of the Commission of Enquiry on the Coca Leaf (23), which was based on a study conducted in 1949-50. Since then, there has been no official evaluation of coca-leaf chewing by WHO.
International control
The coca leaf, as well as cocaine and ecgonine and its esters and derivatives, are at present controlled under Schedule I of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961. The Convention required that coca-leaf chewing "be abolished within 25 years from the coming into force of [the] Convention" (i.e. by December 1989).
Previous review
Coca-leaf chewing was reviewed at the third and fourth meetings of the Committee, which concluded that it was a form of "addiction" (21, 22). The background document used for this assessment was the United Nations Report of the Commission of Enquiry on the Coca Leaf (23), which was based on a study conducted in 1949-50. Since then, there has been no official evaluation of coca-leaf chewing by WHO.
International control
The coca leaf, as well as cocaine and ecgonine and its esters and derivatives, are at present controlled under Schedule I of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961. The Convention required that coca-leaf chewing "be abolished within 25 years from the coming into force of [the] Convention" (i.e. by December 1989).
ECDD Recommendation
No change in scheduling
Link to full TRS
who_trs_836.pdf2.64 MB