History of coca

Coca has been considered the sacred leaf of the Andes for more than a thousand years by many indigenous peoples in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. The act of chewing the coca leaf is deeply embedded in many of these indigenous cultures and has both spiritual and practical applications. In Colombia, coca cultivation was most common among indigenous groups in the Amazon region and in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the Caribbean coast.

There are many varieties of coca throughout the Andes. Coca bushes normally grow to between five and nine feet tall at elevations of between one thousand and three thousand feet. Only about 0.5 percent of the average coca leaf is the stimulant cocaine. In order to activate the cocaine in the chewing process, an alkaline agent such as burnt plants or seashells is added to a small wad of leaves in the mouth. The alkali responds to saliva and activates the cocaine in the leaves.

In addition to being consumed during religious ceremonies, the small amount of cocaine in the coca leaf helps highland indigenous groups cope with altitude sickness while also alleviating their hunger and providing them with energy. Coca leaves are also used to make herbal teas and for various medicinal purposes including as an anesthetic. In comparison to Peru and Bolivia, the indigenous population of Colombia is small. Consequently, coca cultivation and use is a traditional practice for only a small percentage of the population of contemporary Colombia.

In 1860, a German chemist discovered how to process the coca leaf into cocaine hydrochloride—a white powder that is 99 percent cocaine. This scientific process and the resulting cocaine were widely used for medicinal purposes in North America and Europe over the next half a century. The widespread processing of coca leaves into cocaine did not occur in Colombia until the 1970s when drug traffickers began responding to the growing recreational use of the drug in North America and Europe. The indigenous peoples of Colombia do not process the coca leaf into cocaine hydrochloride.

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