WHEN POPE JOHN PAUL II VISITED BOLIVIA
last year, the press published daily accounts of the
number of cups of coca tea he consumed. Does the Pope
do dope? Nope.
At least not in Bolivian eyes. Coca tea-made from
the same leaves as cocaine-is perfectly legal in Bo-
livia. Often given to visitors, like the Pope, who suffer
from altitude sickness (much of the country lies over
12,000 feet above sea level), it is also used for discom-
forts ranging from headaches to labor pains. It is served
everywhere, including the finest hotels and the U.S. Em-
bassy. The same is true in Peru, where a government
agency makes over 3 million coca tea bags a year and
markets them to grocery stores and restaurants across
the country.
Most of the coca leaves used legally-10,000 tons a
year in Peru and up to 15,000 in Bolivia-are chewed,
not brewed. Leaves and an alkaline substance, usually
wood ash, are held in the mouth like a tobacco plug until
The coca releases a tiny bit of the same alkaloid that
gives cocaine its kick, but in a dosage hundreds of times
smaller. The people of the Andes have chewed the leaves
for thousands of years to help them withstand cold,. hunger and long hours of work. Bolivian miners once
received some of their pay in coca leaves; they still chew
them at break time.
That is not to say that coca use hasn’t been viewed
ambivalently. No matter how mild, it is a stimulant, and
the forces of moral probity and public health have perin-
odically campaigned against it for the sane reasons they
have opposed tobacco and alcohol (though in its effects
coca more closely resembles coffee). During the colo-
nial era, the Catholic Church briefly tried to end coca
cultivation, but gave up when it became clear that Span-
ish silver mines would grind to a halt without it.
Many studies have shown coca to be essentially harm-
less, or even beneficial because the leaves provide vita-
mins and minerals otherwise scarce in the diet of poor
Andean residents. A United Nations study purported to
show that coca use was a serious health threat. In fact,
both Peru and Bolivia aresignatories to a UN agreement
which commits them to wiping out coca by 1989. A UN
representative now says that is “obviously a dead letter.
In a poor country like Bolivia we should first concern
ourselves about things like malnutrition and Chaga’s
disease,” a usually fatal illness endemic to the Andean
highlands. The UN agreement, which defines coca as a “con-
trolled substance,” is part of the legal foundation for the
new Bolivian law. Though the law explicitly preserves
the legality of traditional coca use, some see the law as
an attack on coca in all its forms. “I consider attacks on
coca use to be a form of ethnocide,” says Bolivian an-
thropologist Jos6 Mirtenbaum, now an adviser to the
coca farmers. Strong words, but a now-classic study
done in the late 1970s by anthropologists William Carter
and Mauricio Mamani documented the many ways coca
is still used socially, ritually and religiously in Bolivia.
In some areas, chewing coca together is still as impor-
tant a part of meeting with friends or doing business as
sharing a drink is in the United States.
WHILE COCA TEA IS DRUNK BY NEARLY
everyone in Bolivia, coca chewing marks social
class: The poorest, those less caught up in Western ways,
are far more likely to do it than well-off city dwellers,
many of whom view it as a dirty, backward habit. Con-
versely, for some chewers, it is a sign of cultural iden-
tity, distinguishing them from non-indigenous, often
exploitative, “white people.” Since coca boosts energy
and masks hunger, however, supporters of workers’
rights have sometimes campaigned against it, arguing
that it allows for greater exploitation.
UN officials once expressed hope that coca use would
die out as society “modernized.” Coca use is down, but
shows no signs of disappearing. One anthropologist sug-
gests, only half jokingly, “It could increase. Now that
coca is under U.S. attack, coca use could be seen as anti-
imperialist.”
A company in Cochabamba, Bolivia is now making
a line of products, including coca syrup and wine. The
syrup promises users improved mental, digestive and
sexual functions. The wine, for “sportsmen and singers,”
is labeled T6nico Mariani-after the coca-based “tonic”
popular in Europe and the United States at the turn of the
century.
Coca-based products do seem to have vast market
potential world-wide. Unfortunately for the Cochabam-
bans, the Coca-Cola Co. seems to have much of that
market cornered with its beverage, first sold more than a
century ago. Coca leaves still flavor Coke, but in 1906
the U.S. government forced Coca-Cola to begin remov-
ing the cocaine alkaloid from the leaves used in the
company’s brew. U.S. authorities say coca leaves are
dope and nobody-not even the Pope–can legally use
non-“decocainated” coca products within U.S. borders.
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