The Amazon’s “Other” Plant – Coca

A small coca farmer tends his hillside plot

The Amazon Basin is the source of many gifts of natural resource to the world – latex rubber, quinine, aspirin, rotenone (insecticide), chocolate, orchids, passion fruit, Brazil nuts and many more medicinals. But none have been as controversial as an ordinary looking bush (a cousin to the northern Bay tree) , whose leaves contain a powerful chemical called cocaine.

 

Coca leaves are openly and legally sold in Peruvian markets
Even the raw leaves and coca tea are illegal in the US

Coca has been used for over 8,000 years by the indigenous folks of the Amazon basin and the adjacent Andes mountains as an important part of their culture. When chewed and activated with a pinch of lime (the mineral, not the fruit), it produces a numbing effect in the mouth, dulling hunger and providing an energy boost akin to a strong cup of coffee. A tea made from coca leaves can alleviate high altitude sickness. When the Spanish arrived, they found it useful as a tool to extract more work from their enslaved Indians. But it was not until 1860 when a German chemist purified the active plant component – cocaine hydrochloride, C17H21NO4 – and the genie came out of the bottle. At first, the genie seemed benign and found use as a surgical anesthetic and vasoconstrictor and gained popularity as a cure for opiate addiction, headache and “malaise”, mostly in patent medicines and even a popular soft drink (Coca-Cola). Though it found early use and abuse by recreational users, as well, and was subsequently banned in the US in 1922.

A coca plantation. The shrub is hardy and grows fast.

It was not until the 1970’s that the drug found widespread popularity in the US, touching off an economic boom in the Amazon’s traditionally small and quiet coca production areas in the sub-tropical highlands, centered in the Huellaga River valley of Peru and the Coqueta River valley of Colombia. Large coca plantations supplemented the traditional small family plots and for a decade the regions thrived. Drug cartels made billions and employed most every able-bodied man and woman in the area, directly or indirectly. The boom was not without a dark side, with bloody conflicts between the cartels for control. The violence escalated in the early 80’s, when the “Shining Path” revolutionaries entered the fray, adding a brutal political factor to the mix.  Still, the area’s estimated 200,000 acres of coca fueled the drug trade, relatively unabated.

At the same time the US Congress decided the best way to stem the flow of cocaine was to stop it at the source. Their initial funding of a $400 million eradication campaign, carried out by the Peruvian Army, was fraught with corruption and lack of local enthusiasm and destroyed a grand total of 150 of the existing 250 million acres. When Reagan took office, he declared the drug a threat to national security and ordered the US Military to intervene. The military was reluctant, but the CIA and DEA happily complied with funding, training and covert operations, none of which proved particularly successful. In large part, the failures were due to a total lack of local cooperation. Agents were often given false information or drug cartels were warned of attacks well in advance. Moreover, with an estimated 4 million traditional local users of the coca leaf, the US attacks were seen as an assault on their heritage and culture. In total, an estimated 5,000 acres were eradicated, but quickly replaced by other plantings of the fast growing and hardy shrub.

To this day, the coca and cocaine trade in the Amazon basin continues as an important economic sector. Efforts to stop it are paltry and cosmetic. The Peruvian government seems to have reached a truce of sorts with the drug traffickers – you stay in your areas and don’t bother the civilian population and we’ll leave you alone. It is a gentlemen’s agreement that eliminates bloody conflict and provides billions in foreign capital every year.