So far as I know, the coca plant, from which cocaine and all related drugs are derived, has never been grown anywhere but South America. I’ve always assumed this is because it can’t thrive anywhere but in the unique conditions of climate and altitude found in the Andes Mountains. But the Wikipedia article on coca doesn’t actually say this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca Would it be possible to cultivate it elsewhere?
I ask purely out of intellectual curiosity, of course. 
I believe these are also grown in Afghanistan. Poppies certainly are.
I’d think that if one were to provide the proper soil and lighting conditions via grow lights, you could grow them anywhere in a climate-controlled environment. Probably more trouble than it would be worth, though.
Considering that it usually grows in mountain valleys above, IIRC, 1500m - it may be rather difficult to recreate the growing environment.
IIRC from reading nodes on Erowid and other similar sites, the coca plant can in fact be grown elsewhere. But there are a few problems standing in the way from that happening.
Problem #1: Coca seeds are viable for only a few days and must be germinated during this “fresh” period.
Problem #2: The levels of cocaine base chemicals in the leaves corresponds directly to altitude. A coca bush grown at sea level wouldn’t be very useful.
There was (is? I’m fairly certain it’s been eradicated) a species of coca native to Australia. From what I recall, its leaves weren’t nearly as potent as its South American cousin. Sorry about the lack of sites, Erowid has been rearranged since I read up on this stuff.
The link between coca and poppy, in this context, is a non-starter. The two plants are radically different in just about every way imaginable; their legal status isn’t even entirely similar, as opiates are much more widely accepted legally and otherwise as legitimate analgesics than is cocaine. Also, IIRC coca tea is legal in the US and can be found in farmer’s markets–because it won’t get you high–while poppy tea is quite illegal–because it will fly you like a kite.
Most end-users don’t grow coca (at least not in the US), but one must wonder how much of this is difficulty of growing and how much is difficulty of extracting. Cannabis is a popular home-grow plant because once it’s grown it just needs to be picked and cured. Cocaine must be extracted from the coca plant in order for any recreational gain to be made (although one could perhaps skip the extraction route and use coca tea as a substitute for coffee). This creates a low demand for the plant, which creates an incredibly low supply (of seeds etc.) and on and on.
There’s nothing stopin coca from being widely grown, I’ve seen plants in Botanic gardens on Kuala Lumpur, Sydney and there is even a special unit for growing it in Kew Gardens in England (presumably in glass houses). By all accounts it’s not a particularly hard plant to grow if you can protect it from frosts.
Even if the seeds only have a limited lifespan (and I find it hard to believe that any terrestrial plant has seeds that last only a few days) that’s not a problem for transferral. One can simply transport the seedlings, or even transport tissue culture callusses from the parent plant.
If SeaBas is correct and cocain production is a factor of altitude then it may be a moot point. You can have all the coca plants you like, and no cocaine.
Erythroxylum australe is still as widespread as it ever was. Considering that it covers several million hectares of the country it would be quite impossible to eradicate even if that were desired. The Australian species is primarily a plant of semi-arid regions. Of course nobody in their right mind would try to eliminate a native plant anyway.
And you could say the leaves aren’t as potent, to the extent that they contain no cocaine whatsoever. There are a few other modertaely poisonous compounds in their, as a handful of hopefuls have found out to their dismay.
Didn’t the US Gov’t try to eliminate weed, which was pretty much a native plant (and a weed), then again the US Gov’t is rarely in it’s right mind.
Cannabis is a native of Asia. It was introduced to the US by Europeans. As such it would be far easier to eradicate practically, but more importantly eradication would have only positive ecological effects.
In contrast imagine the US government trying to eliminate a real native plant like grapes vines. Practically impossible, ecologically irresponsible and probably illegal under several international treaties. That’s the situation with E. australe in Australia.
According to Erowid it’s actually within a few weeks that they’re no longer viable. Sorry for the mistake.
Why would being non-native make it easier to eradicate? Here in Florida we have kudzu, Brazilian pepper trees, hydrilla, water hyacinths . . .
The big bonus to non-native is that biological control becomes a serious option. It’s relatively easy to go to Asia, pull some bugs off a Cannabis bush and let them go wild in North America. If the plant is already native to North America it will already have a raft of predators and diseases that it has evolved with, so the chances of being able to introduce something novel without causing major damage to non-target species is slim to non-existent.
The other reason why intorduced species are easier to control is that their range will belimited omcpared ot natives, They simply haven;t had the time to physically spread or genetically adapt to all environments. Once a plant has adapted and occupied every niche it’s very hard to eliminate.
The third point is that introduced plants are operating in aliens ecosystems. That opens up a whole range of ecological control measures. If the plant evolved in a system with fire and is now growing in a system that can be fire controlled then it has a weakness. If it evolved in an area with grazing animals and those can now be removbed then it has a weakness and so forth. You can’t manipulate the environment in that way for native species because it will be altering the entire system in a manner detrimental to every other species that also evolved there.
There’s no doubt that there are a number of intorduced weed species worldwide that can’t be eliminated. But nobody ever suggested that all introduced species can be easily eliminated or that native species can never be elimanted. It’s simply that native species are far harder to eliminate practically than introduced species.