The Americas, November 1st, 2006
It has a long history of traditional and medicinal uses, and the backing of Bolivia's head of state, but can coca exist without cocaine?
How can one plant be simultaneously so reviled and revered? As the source of cocaine, coca has been roundly condemned and threatened with total obliteration. News accounts involving coca often frame the issue in terms of narco-trafficking and law enforcement, or lament the billions of dollars spent to eradicate the plant in a futile effort to curb cocaine use.
Yet in Andean cities like Cuzco and La Paz, even tourists casually sip coca tea to ease their tran...
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