A note on coca

"La sagrada hoja", the sacred leaf, this small green plant, the source of such controversy. The official nemeses of the United States and now even under attack from the United Nations... what enemies to have... but, the defence of this supplement is strong here in Bolivia, and increasingly in Peru, where it has been used as a health product and medicine for time immemorial. The leaf is used here mainly as a "mate" (like a herbal tea) or it is directly chewed in the mouth, comical to see men working with huge bulges of coca leaf in their cheeks, and is a wonderful medicine for the prevention of altitude sickness, for hunger and fatigue and as a nutritional supplement - coca, in its natural leaf form, has two to three times more calcium than milk, has more protein than walnuts, has large amounts of vitamin A and E, is rich in iron and potassium, helps to regulate glucose levels in the blood and can be made into a poultice for the alleviation of rheumatism and bone dislocation! A perfect product for the health supplement markets in the west, and wonderful for vegetarians, vegans, travellers and mountaineers. If only it could be viewed with a dose of perspective, and its attack from the United States could be reassessed.

The difference between coca, and cocaine, is as huge as the difference between sugar cane and vodka. The coca leaf is pressed to make a paste which is then processed using an enormous number of chemicals (including white gasoline) to produce the drug cocaine - the largest consumers of which reside in the United Kingdom and the United States and coincidentally, not in Latin America. Coca was mainly cultivated for its domestic use in the Andes for decades, the centre for cocaine production being in the equatorial climes of Colombia, until, ironically, in the 1980s young Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada began the application of US economist, Jeffrey Sachs' neoliberal shock treatments to the struggling Bolivian economy which included the privatisation of the nation's mines and the dismissal of some 45,000 mine workers and 35,000 factory workers who were forced to work through the "informal economy" to survive, mainly on coca farms, to supply the rising demand in Colombia for coca paste (which responded to the rising demand in the US for cocaine) - coca paste became the country's most profitable export in the 1980s (exceeding the total legal exports) and actually cushioned the falling economy which crashed following the application of the neoliberal economic policies.

The United States of America first declared its "war on drugs" under George H Bush, now being continued by George W Bush, with a horrifyingly myopic vision - the destruction of all coca in Latin America. This war has been fought with a very similar mentality to America's other international war, that on "terror" - with disproportionate use of violence and military might and very little analysis of the long term effects. Coca farms were systematically destroyed by US funded military attacks, including the murder of farmers defending their livelihoods, and the "alternative development" they have been offered is enough to make one laugh. The farmers are instructed to plant fruit in place of their coca crop, usually bananas, which then have no market, as the US refuses to buy them, and when the protesting farmers dump their rotting produce onto the roads to highlight the ineffectiveness of this "alternative" the military attacks them - leaving one Bolivian farmer legless after being shot for his protest.

Perhaps a better "war on drugs" is fought by firstly examining the ever escalating demand for cocaine in our societies? The $30 billion spent so far in this "war on peasant farmers" could have funded some genuine analytical research into the rising demand for hard drugs, and into drug prevention and rehabilitation programmes, in the USA and UK. For, as anyone with a basic understanding of the law of markets is aware, whenever a demand exists, a supply will always follow, especially when that demand is for a very high value product. What are we lacking in our societies that drives us to need to consume drugs in such a relentless manner? Perhaps a little meaning anyone?

Coca, the sacred leaf, is not the enemy. Coca could be a wonderful export commodity for its health properties, it could act as a high value export product for Bolivia, the poorest nation in Latin America, and at the same time benefit western consumers. If only our governments and international institutions could take a good dose of perspective. Meanwhile, I will continue to enjoy my daily cup of coca tea until I reach the border!