How did it happen that this plant, originally valuable and useful as a medicine, food and mild stimulant, ended up on the list of the world's most dangerous drugs, criminalized under international law as the equivalent of heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine?
At first, cocaine was widely sold and advertised in a variety of commercial products. However, by 1890, after more than 400 reports of its acute toxicity, it had lost its reputation. Medical professionals began to consider cocaine and morphine equally dangerous, and cocaine became associated with opium. Public opinion came to believe that regular chewing of coca leaves, a traditional and harmless practice, led to severe consequences similar to opium addiction. As a result, a plant that had been used safely and routinely for thousands of years came under the same criminal sanctions as opium, morphine and cocaine.
This explanation seems logical, but only up to a point, as it hid a much darker picture. The U.S. government has long demonized coca. Fifty years before the massive illegal drug trade began in Peru, U.S.-backed programs to destroy traditional coca plantations began. It was not really about fighting drugs, but about suppressing cultural identity and the survival of those who had honored coca for centuries. The call for eradication came from officials and doctors, both Peruvian and American, whose concern for indigenous health was often coupled with ignorance of life in the Andes and disregard for the very people for whom coca was part of their culture.
Importantly, it was these experts and politicians who drafted the laws and international agreements that shape modern drug policy. Their voices can still be heard today through their reports, in which they confuse personal opinion with scientific truth and pseudoscientific experiments with real science. This is the scandal at the heart of the history of coca.
In the 1920s, doctors and officials from Lima, seeing only poverty, illiteracy, poor health and high child mortality in the Andes, looked for the cause of these problems. Their prejudices and class blindness led them to declare coca as the cause of everything. In 1952, Prof. Vicente Zapata Ortiz wrote that «the constant toxic state induced by coca contributes to the deterioration of living conditions, which is the main cause of underdevelopment». He characterized coca users as «apathetic, lazy, incapable of intellectual activity, poorly adjusted, unwilling to learn Spanish, preferring ancestral languages». In areas of high coca leaf consumption, there are many illiterates, and the dominant languages are Quechua and Aymara.
In 1929, Carlos A. Ricketts proposed a plan to eradicate coca, calling consumers feeble-minded and lazy. Another analyst, Mario A. Puga, called coca «a form of genocide against the people». In 1936, physician and professor Carlos Enrique Paz Soldan called for active measures, «If we wait for a divine miracle to free the population from coca, it means abdicating responsibility».
In the 1940s, the fight against coca was led by Carlos Gutierrez-Noriega. He considered coca an obstacle to the health and well-being of Indians and created a series of dubious studies conducted in prisons and mental institutions, concluding that users were antisocial, low-spirited, lazy, and lacking initiative. His scientific position was clearly ideological: in 1947, he wrote that «coca use, illiteracy and negative attitudes toward culture are linked».
Fonda was associated with Pablo Wolf, head of the addictions section of the WHO (1949-1954), who was an advocate of strict control and criminalization of coca. In 1949, Wolf gave a lecture in London in which he argued that chewing the leaves was a social evil that caused moral and physical decay, criminality, and even barbarism. He believed that coca causes «social degradation» and must be eradicated.
These views were typical of the times, an era when the elite ruled the country and indigenous peoples were seen as backward and in need of «civilization». In 1948, the Colombian government declared leaf chewing a «social evil», banning sales in markets and restricting pharmacy sales. Bolivian authorities also blamed coca for the mental decline and social inferiority of the Indians. In 1952, Luis Leon wrote that thanks to the disappearance of coca in Ecuador, many sociologists recognized the superiority of local Indians.
Wolf and his colleagues made no attempt to understand what was in the leaves and based their conclusions on personal beliefs and pseudoscientific hypotheses. They did not analyze the nutrients of the leaves, although such studies were possible as early as 1949. As a result of their official documents, coca was declared harmful, and in 1950 it was declared «not an addiction but only a habit». Wolf subsequently succeeded in getting this removed from official documents, and it was his formulation of the «cocaine equivalent» that formed the basis of international treaties, including Article 49 of the 1961 Single Convention, which listed coca as the most dangerous drug.
This led to a complete ban on the use of coca leaves, except for the production of alkaloid-free flavorings, which allows Coca-Cola to legally import the leaves and produce beverages from them. The U.S. currently imports more than one hundred tons of leaves per year, some of which goes into cocaine production and some of which goes into making beverages, keeping the largest company in control of the market and profits.
For nearly 40 years, the status of coca has remained unchanged despite an active illegal cocaine trade. In 1992, WHO conducted a major study that confirmed that the traditional use of coca leaves is not harmful to health and fulfills cultural, social and therapeutic functions. The report recommended that the therapeutic potential of the leaf and the impact of repressive measures be studied.
Nevertheless, more than 75 years after the first attempts to eradicate coca, the chances of change are increasing. Bolivia and Colombia are actively advocating for a policy review. In 2023, WHO plans to launch a new comprehensive review, and the outcome in 2025 could be a decision to fully exempt the leaves from international restrictions. This would mean recognizing their cultural value and therapeutic potential, and supporting the millions of people for whom coca is a source of income and part of their heritage.
If South American countries are successful, it would be an important step towards restoring cultural traditions and creating new opportunities for development. Releasing coca leaves will help reduce the black market, reduce deforestation and allow taxation of cultivation, which will generate income for countries and support millions of families. Ultimately, this is a chance to end the long-running war on coca and return the plant to the historical, cultural and spiritual status it had back in the days of the Incas and the ancient civilizations of the Andes.