Mate de Coca what is your position?

The last time I was arriving from Peru, I entered the EU in Madrid. I had a small bag of coca leaves on me, which I completely forgot about and I panicked. So I figured honesty is the way forward, I marched up to the X-ray lady and asked. She literally laughed at me and said it was no problem. Never felt less rock'n'roll in my life, freaking out about a bag of coca leaves.

So this time around, naturally, I assumed that it was fine. Now that I am sitting at home and trying to figure out EU or national policy regarding the issue, I am finding it more and more difficult.

What happened was the following. My two backpacks remind behind in Amsterdam, as lay-over was 45 minutes, I wasn't really even hoping for them. So after I registered with lost&found I was required to get a paper signed and stamped at customs. When I said I was coming from Peru, the dude asked me if I have coke (no), coca leaves (no) or coca tea in my backpacks. The latter I had and I said it so without thinking. Remember when I thought honesty was the way forward? The guy's eyes rounded and he let out a pitying sigh. In a subject, where he was an apparent authority, he started explaining to me that this is what they make cocaine out of and the natives chew it in order to get out of control and absolutely high. When I tried to rebuke his ridiculous explanations, all I got in exchange were rolling eyes and smirks.

I have to return to the airport to go through some procedures and testing of the coca tea to determine the level of alkaloids. I have been researching my counter-arguments since I got home, but besides the beautiful sounding cultural-anthropological arguments, which, at this moment worth crap, I cannot find anything comprehensive on the legal or policy aspect. The list led by the over 300 pages long Community Register of Food Additives that mentions cocain one line, around page 78, which allows 'decocainized' leaves, but further inquiry will leave you bouncing between three useless documents that quote each other.

Actually, as we speak, M. and I are doing massive Skype date-research in order to find some answers. It seems that in Spain the stuff is legal to bring in the country, if you dare to take a chat website with the name cannabiscafe.net seriously. I am mostly left incredulous by the fact that after a few hours of constant looking, it still seems impossible to find any reliable and comprehensive explanation on a national or international level. I have learned that there is the UN Single Convention from 1961 that prohibits any use of coca related products. This is a fair enough answer for me until I remember that not so long ago (2007) the UN enacted a little something called Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, where some paragraphs practically head-but the aims of the Single Convention.

An article by Joep Oomen highlights briefly some of the cultural, historical, policy and even medical issues surrounding the debate. Nevertheless, he is not providing me with a clear answer on the question of mate de coca. So far I have the following options:

• There is a supranational European consensus on the legality or illegality. If it is legal then Hungarian customs are pulling my leg, which I am hoping for, or if it's the latter then I'm screwed.
• Decocainized tea is legal. Yet to find out if the tea I brought belongs in this category.
• There is no distinction between cocaine/coca leaf/coca tea. I am going to jail.

M. just sent me the most comprehensive document so far on the 'esptupefacientes' not allowed to be brought into Europe.

Hoja de coca Un kilogramo de tintura de hoja de coca que contenga 0,1% de cocaína, o sea  

1 gramo de cocaína, debe considerarse equivalente a 200 gramos de hoja de coca. 

 Un kilogramo de extracto líquido de hoja de coca que contenga 0,5% de cocaína,  

o sea 5 gramos de cocaína, equivale a 1 kilogramo de hoja de coca. 

  

I guess what it really tells me that I do have to go back to the airport and have 'my coke' tested. As ridiculous and pointless as it seems. Bummer.