# Can Bolivia make a case for commercial coca production? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 9, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bolivia-make-a-case-for-commercial-coca-production/383471 "2006-12-09T15:13:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bolivia-make-a-case-for-commercial-coca-production/383471/1 "2006-12-09T15:13:45Z")
Is their new leader a farmer’s advocate or a drug lord with a respectable title? > **[Bolivia's Morales Eye Middle Way on Coca](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/08/AR2006120800470.html)** > > CARANAVI, Bolivia -- Since taking office in January, Bolivian President Evo Morales has tried to hold onto millions of dollars in U.S. aid contingent on the eradication of coca, without losing the support of its growers. But keeping both sides happy... ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2006, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bolivia-make-a-case-for-commercial-coca-production/383471/2 "2006-12-09T15:48:27Z")
Well, there are legitimate [pharmalogical](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca#Pharmacological_aspects) and [industrial](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca#Industrial_use) uses for the coca plant. [_sniff_] I mean, it doesn’t necessarily make [_sniff_] Morales a drug dealer. ---
**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bolivia-make-a-case-for-commercial-coca-production/383471/3 "2006-12-10T17:04:25Z")
Toothpaste? Gimme a break ---
**Author:** ![Unregistered\_Bull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3da27b/32.png) [@Unregistered\_Bull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unregistered_Bull)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bolivia-make-a-case-for-commercial-coca-production/383471/4 "2006-12-10T17:13:33Z")
[QUOTE=According to Pliny] Toothpaste? Gimme a break [/QUOTE] Why not? It’s a popularly used substance in that geographical area of the world. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bolivia-make-a-case-for-commercial-coca-production/383471/5 "2006-12-10T18:00:02Z")
I was just in Peru. Coca leaves are legal and widely available. You can get Coca tea almost everywhere and people chew the leaves. The effects are mild and help combat hunger, tiredness, and altitude sickness. It’s a shame that peasants can’t grow and sell the leaves. Can you imagine the global market if Starbucks sold Coca tea? It takes an absurd amount of leaves to make cocaine, so putting an export tax on the leaves would make it uneconomical to use for that purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bolivia-make-a-case-for-commercial-coca-production/383471/6 "2006-12-10T20:06:23Z")
[QUOTE=Unregistered Bull] Why not? It’s a popularly used substance in that geographical area of the world. [/QUOTE] Indeed. Why should our problems give us the right to dictate Bolivia’s drug policy for them? It all comes down to the whole legalization issue, but a regulated legal market would have to be better than the way the drug trade works now. Besides, brewing up some coca tea is hardly the same thing as freebasing the refined drug. I don’t get the toothpaste angle either, though. Do people down there tend to have bad teeth that hurt, due to insufficient dental care? ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bolivia-make-a-case-for-commercial-coca-production/383471/7 "2006-12-11T01:36:09Z")
I don’t know what coca leaves taste like, but one can find toothpaste flavored with orange, cinnamon, green tea, etc. People who chew coca and drink coca tea may enjoy coca-flavored toothpaste. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bolivia-make-a-case-for-commercial-coca-production/383471/8 "2006-12-11T03:27:30Z")
Bear in mind that the coca leaf extracts contain alkaloids other than cocaine alongwith various nutrients like vitamins. Ethnographic studies dating back to the 19th and 20th century show that the psychoactive profile of coca is not just the result of cocaine. Due to two factors - 1)the inability (or crude ability) of the third-person scientific approach to properly evaluate phenomenal activity, 2)the tendency of Western science to want to isolate activity within simple unitary agents which are convenient to study - cocaine has been implicated as the sole cause within the coca leaf. The prohibitionary ethos which has extended over to academic and commercial pharmacology due to the WoD means that there’s not much enthusiasm to decide these matters, given the token preset political goal of “eradicating” its presence. Just to update matters, not only Coca mate (tea) but there are a [couple](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/business/worldbusiness/10coca.html?ex=1402286400&en=5d8b5778042ed949&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND) of soft drinks a la original Coca Cola as well. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bolivia-make-a-case-for-commercial-coca-production/383471/9 "2006-12-11T21:00:41Z")
[QUOTE=II Gyan II] Just to update matters, not only Coca mate (tea) but there are a [couple](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/business/worldbusiness/10coca.html?ex=1402286400&en=5d8b5778042ed949&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND) of soft drinks a la original Coca Cola as well. [/QUOTE] [Coca Cola](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca_cola#Urban_legends_and_unusual_uses) is **still** made with coca leaves – “spent” leaves from which the cocaine has been extracted; presumably they’re just in there for the flavor.