SBS - Tue 21/10/03 8.30pm - "Coca and the Congressman"

The Cutting Edge
Coca and the Congressman

8.30pm - 9.30pm | SBS
Current Affairs (USA/English)

This program examines the shifting balance of political power across Latin America that has promoted the head of the Bolivian coca-growing union to the brink of the Presidency.

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Sounds interesting

lol, reminded me with 3 minutes to go til it starts

Interesting doco, the guy sounds like a hero to me.
No one has suffered more from the war on (some) drugs than the poor in countries like Bolivia, Colombia etc..
I'll bet the US is investing some serious money trying to take him down.

They use cement and deisel fuel to make the stuff. Yummo.

How exactly does concrete fit into coke manufacture (roughly)? It really got me thinking when the narrator said that.

Not a bad doco overall. I think we forget how badly the war on drugs effects countries like Bolivia. The film maker managed to interview a range of people and told a pretty compelling story. Good stuff.

How exactly does concrete fit into coke manufacture (roughly)?

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I think what was meant was that lime is used to alkalize the solution soaking the leaves. Calcium oxide or hydroxide is used to either initiate the release the alkaloids, or to mop up sulphuric acid and extract the cocaine sulphate when this method is used.


Illicit production of Cocaine(Forensics paper hosted by Rhodium)


Coca Cultivation and Cocaine Processing

Erythroxlum Coca


Erythroxylum coca



Erythroxylum australe 'Australian'

Does Erythroxylum australe contain the cocaine alkaloid?

EDIT:

I had a look at those sites, and my question was answered.
It doesn't contain cocaine, yet stupidly enough, it's banned in NSW, where it's native!
It's not even banned in the drug-unfriendly USA!

All Erythroxylaceae species are declared prohibited plants in NSW.

How a native species to Australia can be 'declared prohibited' is a mystery to botanical scientists, an analogy would be declaring a tree prohibited from a forest, or water prohibited from a lake.

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Fucking ridiculous 8(

It does not contain any cocaine as such but it does have other alkaloids that are found in E. coca. They of course would not be expected to be anywhere near as potent as cocaine. Check the link above the pics

Yea I watched the doco thinking it was going to be about coke but It was more of a political discussion though.

Andean peasants have been cultivating coca for centuries and depend on it for their livelihood. It's always been part of their culture but the US is putting a stop to this and arming the Bolivian government with helichopter gunships and guns in exchange for aid.

In my idealistic world those people would grow (like they have done for eons) and produce cocaine and sell it direct to the free world. Their local industry helping them out of poverty in a more balanced and understanding world.... but I don't think we're at that stage of human evolution yet, not for a while.

One thing that disappointed me was that I didn't get to see any processed cocaine . I was hanging to see a big brick but no just leaves

The leaves are quite different to the extracted cocaine in many respects, particularly with regards to regular use. I haven't been fortunate enough to have enough leaves to eat but I did once chew a small amount of the dried contents of a coca leaf tea-bag with a bit of hydrated lime. All I noticed was a mild numbing of the mouth but the effect is supposed to be subtle anyway. My year long love affair with cocaine left little attraction in this drug for me, but the leaves would be a different story. I would expect the effect would be more to my liking, gentle and minimal upon the mind, as apposed to the craziness which comes from daily cocaine use.


I know I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't think cocaine should ever be freely available (i.e. it shouldn't be legalised without regulation).
It can be a sinister drug in the sense it can take a lot to master. It certainly shakes loose any demons lurking

But the leaves contain very little cocaine and it isn't inhaled or insufflated. The continual "nose feeding" is avoided, and I would imagine if you chewed too many leaves you'd likely get nausea before you were totally chopped. If it was more difficult to extract the alkaloid and you could easily grow coca throughout the US farming belts, I wonder whether they'd be so anxious to regulate it?

In reality though cocaine has a very checkered history in the US. One only has to look at the first decade or so of the 20th century, followed by the more recent periods like the 60/70's when cocaine was publicly glamorized. Paul Newman even wore a gold razor on a chain round his neck! Then there was the resurgence through the eighties when crack became popular. But like most drugs, it's theraputic and health benefits are buried beneath mountains of regulations, put in place by those who neither understand it's potential, nor it's socio-economic importance and relevance to another culture who have used and depended upon this plant for far longer than US has existed


Some years ago I got to know a guy from Peru. He described his typical big night out where he and his friends would get a few beers or wine and 1 gram of coke. I mentioned how good it would be to be able to buy an ounce so cheap (yes this was when I thought coke was the only real thing). My friend almost reeled back in his chair saying "...we would never buy that much.....you'd get hooked" He went on to say that anyone buying a large amount of cocaine is dubiously looked upon by most users saying it was like buying a bag of demons and everyone who knows you will be affected by them.

I didn't realise the significance of that statement till almost a year later.

Perhaps it is the ultimate revenge on the western world for the spanish Inquisition. Natives chew the leaves and spit the demonic residue. Westerners prefer their demons refined so as to be completely assimilated. Gotcha!!!