The sale of
coca leaves - the base component of cocaine - is legal in this part of Bolivia.
The letter, addressed to Jon Woods, general manager of
Coca Cola Great Britain & Ireland, requests that
Coca Cola stop giving away cans of
Coca Cola Original Taste due to the amount of sugar it contains.
In the illustrated pages of "
Coca Wine", author Aymon de Lestrange demonstrates how Mariani became, in many ways, the father of modern advertising with his highly successful advertising campaigns.
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) says that, with 27,000 hectares under cultivation, Bolivia is the third-largest producer of
coca leaf, after Colombia (68,000 ha) and Peru (59,000 ha).
Since 1998, 33
coca growers and 27 security officers have been killed, mostly in the major illegal growing area called Chapare.
And lately
coca leaves have been appearing in a different guise: as a favored accessory of Evo Morales, certainly Bolivia's most celebrated cocalero (
coca farmer), as well as the country's first indigenous president.
The
coca issue is one of the reasons why Morales is so controversial.
"There are around 250 species of pests known to destroy
coca and poppy crops.
Toward the end of "Legalization Now!" (June),Toby Muse discusses U.S.-funded fumigation efforts against
coca farms in Colombia, including costs and some of the drawbacks.
The target of the spray is the primary cocaine ingredient
coca, which may be interspersed with food-bearing crops.
The drugs that receive the most attention are tobacco and alcohol, followed by sugar, marijuana, and
coca. The focus on tobacco and alcohol was dictated more by the essays contained within the volume, rather than the relative importance of other drugs such as opium and its derivatives.
With INL support, the Colombian government has eradicated both
coca and heroin poppy at a pace that should begin to seriously deter future growing, even as it wipes out larger and larger percentages of the crops that currently become cocaine and heroin.
