Coca
Coca (Erythroxylum coca) is a plant native to the Andes Mountains in South America, known for being the source of cocaine, a highly regulated and addictive substance. Traditionally, the leaves of coca have been chewed for their stimulant effects and are associated with various medicinal uses, such as alleviating altitude sickness in mountainous regions like Peru. Although it has been used by indigenous peoples for over four thousand years, coca gained international attention in the late 19th century as pharmaceutical companies began to explore its potential, initially believing it to be a safe and effective treatment.
Coca has also played a role in the history of popular beverages, notably Coca-Cola, which originally contained cocaine until most was removed in the early 20th century. While coca cultivation remains economically important for some farmers, particularly in Peru and Bolivia, it is largely driven by the illegal drug trade, with a significant percentage of coca being purchased by drug cartels. Environmental concerns arise from coca farming practices, which can lead to deforestation and pollution.
Despite historical claims of its medicinal benefits, modern studies have raised concerns about coca’s health risks, including its potential for addiction, negative effects on respiratory conditions, and other serious health issues associated with cocaine. The complexities surrounding coca involve cultural significance, economic reliance, and public health challenges, making it a multifaceted topic of interest.
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Coca
Coca (Erythroxylum coca) is a plant that is the source of cocaine, which is an addictive drug that is highly regulated in many countries, including the United States. People have chewed coca leaves for a number of its effects, which include suppressing feelings of hunger or tiredness. In mountainous regions, including Peru, coca tea is a treatment for altitude sickness.
The plant is native to the Andes Mountains of South America. It grows best in humid, tropical climates, primarily mountainous regions at elevations from 1,500 to 7,100 feet. It requires rich soil and temperatures between 65 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit.
An extract of the coca plant, without the cocaine, is a flavoring used in manufacturing drinks and in a variety of foods. Early versions of some beverages contained coca extract and cocaine.
Brief History
Erythroxylum coca has been used as a stimulant and for medicinal purposes in South America for more than four thousand years. Many people chewed the leaves for the emotional lift they provided, and as an appetite suppressant and digestive aid. Explorers who arrived from Europe during the sixteenth century discovered these local uses for the plant, but cultivation remained limited to the Andes range for several more centuries.
American drug companies began looking for new medicines in South America during the late nineteenth century. They initially believed coca was a safe substance because of its long-term use in the region, and introduced it as a pharmaceutical product. It was often used as a numbing agent, for example in drops to ease the pain of toothache and in pills to treat sinus pain. Within three decades, however, the pharmaceutical industry determined the cocaine in coca was highly addictive.
Cocaine was also used as a food additive. A chemist in Paris, France, Angelo Mariani, added coca to wine. He called the wine tonic Vin Mariani. The beverage was widely praised, and proved popular with notables including authors Arthur Conan Doyle and Jules Verne, as well as Pope Leo XIII, who awarded the product a gold medal. Dr. John Stith Pemberton of Atlanta, Georgia, tried to copy the product. He marketed Pemberton's French Wine Coca as a cure-all. Pemberton, who was addicted to morphine following injuries he received in the American Civil War, enjoyed success until a local law was passed that made alcohol sale illegal. He adjusted his recipe, substituting sugar syrup for the wine, and in 1886 began selling Coca-Cola as a nonalcoholic beverage.
Coca-Cola was first sold only in soda fountains. In 1899, however, a bottled version arrived on the market. This increased the reach of the beverage, and more people became addicted to the cocaine it contained. In 1903, the manufacturer was forced to remove most of the cocaine, substituting more sugar and caffeine in the product. The cola still contained coca, however, and very small amounts of the psychoactive element ecgonine alkaloid. It took until 1929 for scientists to develop the process to extract the alkaloid from coca.
Cocaine reemerged decades later in the illegal drug trade. During the 1970s, cocaine use was a status symbol because it was expensive and people believed it was not dangerous. As the price fell, more people began using it. By the middle of the 1980s, six million Americans were regularly using cocaine, in particular the chemically altered form known as crack. Several high-profile deaths disproved the notion that cocaine was not dangerous.
The drug trade continued, however. Drugs manufactured in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru were exported around the world. By the 2010s, an estimated $400 million in cocaine was produced in Colombia alone every week.
Overview
Farmers in a number of countries rely on coca. People in remote villages on mountainsides in Peru, for example, subsist on other crops through much of the year, but make a profit only from the coca harvest. Peruvian and Bolivian cocaine largely fuels the European drug trade, while most cocaine smuggled into the United States is grown and processed in Colombia.
Coca production has a negative effect on the environment. Farmers contribute to deforestation as they clear rain forests to plant coca shrubs. The trees are cleared through logging operations and widespread burning, which pollutes the atmosphere. The loss of rain forest habitat contributes to global climate change. Growers often use chemicals to kill vegetation, and use potentially dangerous substances including gasoline, acid, and acetone in producing cocaine from coca leaves.
Coca growers say other crops cannot provide the same profit. They harvest coca four times a year, and one acre of the native plant equals the production of five acres of coffee or cacao. Some farmers are registered with an agency of the Peruvian government to grow coca for medicinal use, including candies and distillations. An estimated 85 percent of the crops, however, were purchased by the drug cartels as of 2013. A 2016 United Nations report found that land dedicated to coca production in Peru had decreased more than 6 percent from 2014 to 2015. Government efforts to reduce coca cultivation by encouraging farmers to produce alternative crops, such as cocoa, were credited with some of the reduction. The price of dry coca leaf dropped, also contributing to falling production.
In the United States, cocaine is a schedule II controlled substance. It is recognized as having medicinal uses but also a drug likely to be abused. It is sometimes used as a topical anesthetic, for example in nose and throat procedures. Pharmaceutical cocaine is provided by cola manufacturing companies that have removed the substance from the coca extract used as a flavoring.
Researchers have studied the effects of coca on the body and its potential as a medicine. Despite long-standing traditional uses in treating altitude sickness, stomach illness, and other ailments, studies have not found solid evidence for coca's benefits.
Coca has been found to make asthma worse, and has been associated with birth defects, miscarriage, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). It may also have negative effects for those with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and risk of stroke. Many of these risks are due to the cocaine present in the coca plant; just one-quarter teaspoon of cocaine can be lethal and the substance is highly addictive. Cocaine can alter brain neurons and interfere with new neuron growth. This can affect learning and memory functions.
The combination of alcohol and cocaine creates a greater feeling of excitement than either substance alone. This is because cocaine and alcohol combine in the human system to create the drug cocaethylene. Cocaine users who also drink alcoholic beverages are at greater risk of medical complications.
Bibliography
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