APEHCOCA

In 2006 she was invited to create APEHCOCA (Peruvian Association for the Coca Leaf), a private organization that protects, promotes and spreads information on the value of the Coca Leaf as a Natural Resource, in its Sacred use, as part of our Cultural Identity and as our best Medicine and Nourishment. It also promotes scientific and historical research on the Coca Leaf and carries out actions to retire the Coca Leaf from the No.1 International List of Illicit Drugs - Convention of Vienna 1961, that considers this plant as a drug and its consumption as drug-addiction. This organization is free of any political affiliation and totally opposed to drug trafficking. Mary Ann Eddowes is a Board member.