Morales admits coca is diverted

President Evo Morales acknowledged for the first time in his nearly three years in office that a portion of coca grown in the country is used to make cocaine.

Morales, who remains the leader of Bolivia’s coca-growing unions, also said that his government is aware that some farmers are violating a law that limits each family to planting a little less than half an acre of coca for medicine and food.

“Not all of our coca goes to legal markets,” Morales told union leaders during a speech broadcast on government radio Patria Nueva.

“Unfortunately, because of an illegal problem -- drug addiction in some countries -- our coca gets diverted into illegal markets.” He did not say how much of the coca is diverted to make cocaine.

Bolivia is the third-largest coca producer after Colombia and Peru.