Vin Mariani from medicine to food (article)

David Smith, "Hail Mariani: the transformation of Vin Mariani from Medicine to Food in American Culture, 1886-1910," Social History of Alcohol and Drugs 23/1 (Fall 2008): 42-57.  Coca wine.

Posted by David Fahey on January 18, 2009 at 09:48 AM in Coca Leaf, United States, Wine | Permalink

Cocaine and the Environment

A case study published in the Trade and Environment Database, at the American University in Washington, DC, reports that the production of cocaine in South America, especially the Andean region, has had a devastating impact on the environment. Find the full report here.

Posted by Cynthia on October 29, 2008 at 08:27 PM in Bolivia, Coca Leaf, Cocaine, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru | Permalink

Andean coca crop grows markedly

According to the Washington Post, the coca crop in the Andean region has grown by 18%, For details, see here. This is despite expensive US efforts to eliminate coca production that helps supply the cocaine trade.

Posted by David Fahey on September 3, 2008 at 07:11 AM in Coca Leaf, Cocaine | Permalink

Seven die in coca ambush in Peru

Suspected rebels in Peru have killed seven men, including five policemen, in an ambush in the country's coca-growing interior.

The BBC reports.

Posted by Cynthia on December 18, 2006 at 01:10 PM in Coca Leaf, Peru | Permalink

Evo Morales opens coca factory

This story, unsigned and from Reuters, is on the wire right now.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales visited a coca-growing region on Saturday to open a Venezuelan-funded factory where coca leaves will be made into legal products such as tea and soft drinks.

Morales rose in politics as the leader of Bolivia's coca farmers and part of his anti-drug policy is to encourage licit uses for coca -- the plant used to make cocaine, which is also revered by Andean peoples for its medicinal properties.

Full story here.

Posted by Jon on June 17, 2006 at 08:16 PM in Bolivia, Coca Leaf, Cocaine, Venezuela | Permalink

Candler of Coca-Cola (book)

Kathryn W. Kemp. God's Capitalist: Asa Candler of Coca-Cola. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2002. [Biography of the man who first marketed John Pemberton's headache elixir of caffeine, coca leaves, kola nuts, and other unknown ingredients.]

Posted by Jon on June 5, 2006 at 09:23 AM in Caffeine, Coca Leaf, Soft Drinks, Temperance, United States | Permalink

the Venezuelan-Colombian border

Fabiola Sanchez reports on the AP on the growing military presence along the Venezuela-Colombia border, which has long been characterized by heavy drug trafficking. Link here.

Posted by Jon on June 3, 2006 at 12:10 PM in Bolivia, Coca Leaf, Cocaine, Colombia, Drugs (general) | Permalink

Coca champion Evo Morales

Andrew Mueller, for the May 7 Independent, profiles Evo Morales and his popularity at home.

Morales continues, also, to champion the cause of the coca-growers. Coca - the plant from which cocaine is refined - plays a key role in many traditional practices. Previous governments, anxious to keep getting US aid, abetted America's quixotic coca eradication programmes, effectively deploying Bolivia's army to suppress its poorest people at the behest of a foreign power. Under a 1988 law, only 12,000 hectares were set aside for the legal production of coca. In 2004, Morales's agitation won another 3,200 hectares, but as president his ambitions go further.

Morales wants the United Nations to rescind a 1961 convention that declares coca an illegal narcotic, so that Bolivia might export coca-based soap, wine, shampoo and biscuits, among other products. In March 2006, in a gesture that demonstrated both coca's versatility and Morales's innate cheekiness, he presented the visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with a ukulele decorated with lacquered coca leaves.

Posted by Jon on May 8, 2006 at 08:05 AM in Bolivia, Coca Leaf, Cocaine | Permalink

Coca as Symbol and Labor Enhancer in the Andes (article)

Vicki Cassman, Larry Cartmell, Eliana Belmonte, “Coca as Symbol and Labor Enhancer in the Andes: A Historical Overview.” Drugs, labor, and colonial expansion. Ed. William Jankowiak and Daniel Bradburd. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2003, pp. 149 - 158.

Posted by Jon on May 5, 2006 at 03:11 PM in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Coca Leaf, Cocaine, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela | Permalink

Latin America's "wrong left" and drug trafficking

Jorge G. Castañeda, in the May/June 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs, counsels Washington and the international community on what they should do about "Latin America's left turn." Castañeda characterizes his "wrong left" with many "moral" problems, including the tolerance of drug trafficking.

The international community should also clarify what it expects from the "wrong left," given that it exists and that attempts to displace it would be not only morally unacceptable but also pragmatically ineffective. The first point to emphasize is that Latin American governments of any persuasion must abide by their countries' commitments regarding human rights and democracy. The region has built up an incipient scaffolding on these matters over recent years, and any backsliding, for whatever reason or purpose, should be met by a rebuke from the international community. The second point to stress is that all governments must continue to comply with the multilateral effort to build a new international legal order, one that addresses, among other things, the environment, indigenous people's rights, international criminal jurisdiction (despite Washington's continued rejection of the International Criminal Court and its pressure on several Latin American governments to do the same), nuclear nonproliferation, World Trade Organization rules and norms, regional agreements, and the fight against corruption, drug trafficking, and terrorism, consensually defined. Europe and the United States have enormous leverage in many of these countries. They should use it.

Full text here.

Posted by Jon on May 2, 2006 at 12:44 PM in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cannabis, Chile, Coca Leaf, Cocaine, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Drugs (general), Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Uruguay, Venezuela | Permalink