Alcohol and Drugs History Society

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.]

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.

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.

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.

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.