Peru Coca Leaf Fuels Energy Drink Demand

[rm1x]

Looks interesting.

Buzz cola??

Peru Coca Leaf Fuels Energy Drink Demand

By Robin Emmott | May 6, 2004

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - The sacred coca leaf that the Andean peoples of South America have used for thousands of years for its energizing qualities is a marvelous ingredient for yogurt maker Maria Quiroz.
ADVERTISEMENT


She started making yogurt with coca -- the raw material for cocaine -- several months ago to sell at Lima's organic market, and the strong demand for her product has allowed her to think about opening a bigger business.

Quiroz's efforts are part of a new trend in Peru to use the ancient leaf in energy drinks and health foods, opening up a wider legal market that coca growers argue will direct coca production away from the drugs trade.

Peru is the world's No. 2 cocaine producer after Colombia.

"We've demonized coca in Peru for so long and we've forgotten its health value and how full of proteins and minerals it is," said Quiroz at her market stand.

Two new coca drinks have been launched this year in Peru, with plans for export, while lawmakers hope to pass legislation to formalize coca production and allow the green leaf to be promoted much more widely as a health product.

Moves to develop a legal market are fiercely supported by thousands of coca growers, who arrived in Lima this week after marching from the central jungle to protest large-scale, U.S.-backed crop eradication. They say only half their production goes to the drugs traffickers, not the 90 percent the government claims.

Experts say that coca has been internationally associated with drugs since a 1912 opium convention in The Hague, which formally established that cocaine could be produced by separating one of the alkaloids contained in coca.

LEGAL DEMAND

Nevertheless, coca contains more calcium than milk and more proteins than meat, according to medical studies. It is used by thousands of Indians to increase stamina, stave off hunger and is drunk traditionally by Peruvians in tea to aid digestion and as a remedy against altitude sickness.

In a new study, the government says Peruvian demand for legal coca products is three times larger than the government coca agency ENACO supplies.

With U.S. funding, Peru is on the warpath against illegal coca production and aims to squeeze the cocaine supply chain to U.S and European markets. State anti-drugs agency DEVIDA said the amount of land devoted to growing coca was slashed in 2003 to its lowest level in 20 years. It aims to replace many more acres of coca with crops like coffee and fruit this year.

But some politicians want to see some coca-growing areas protected. Lawmaker Adolfo Latorre has submitted a bill to Congress to regulate legal coca production more efficiently.

"Coca as a leaf is not a drug and we need to realize that," said Latorre. He said his bill would introduce a permit system whereby registered coca growers could grow set quotas of coca for legal consumption every year.

ICE TEA PICK-ME-UP

Lima-based Kokka Royal Food, set up by Spanish and Peruvian investors with an initial investment of $300,000, is one of two companies trying to make the most of legal coca.

In February, the company began selling its iced tea called K-Drink in Peru, giving away free samples in supermarkets, and calling it "divine energy."

"It's a completely natural stimulant that is not addictive," said company Director Eduardo Mazzini.

The company, which has sold 75,000 bottles of K-Drink between February and mid-April, hopes to turn a profit by the end of 2005, according to Kokka's General Manager Cristina Tudela.

"We also aim to export to The Netherlands, Italy, Spain," said Tudela.

Coca-Cola already uses a coca extract in its formula, although the cocaine-producing alkaloid was removed from the drink more than 100 years ago.

K-Drink will try to leave that alkaloid in because the company says it is part of the drink's make-up. "We know we will come up against international laws that prohibit exporting the alkaloid, be we hope to be treated as an exception," Tudela said, giving no details why it should be.

Vortex energy drink is another new Peruvian coca beverage, competing with energy drinks such as Austria's Red Bull. Aimed at 18- to 30-year-olds, it has proved a hit with party-goers.

"Our sales are 10 times above what we expected so far," said Vortex Commercial Manager Christian Chang. "We've also signed our first option agreement with a firm in Europe and we received an order to send a trial to Central America."

Chang said Vortex's coca ingredient gave it an edge over other energy drinks because of its natural qualities.

"Coca supplies energy via carbohydrates, amino acids and fatty acids, something that other energy drinks don't have," he said. Vortex will remove coca's cocaine-producing alkaloid for export, Chang said.

 

[melburn_madness]

are there any products like these in Australia?

 

[phase_dancer]

Because there is no appreciable cocaine content in Australian native cocaine ( Erythroxylum australe) the local variety could prove more suitable for such a product. However, my bet is there would be uproar if a product containing any appreciable amount of cocaine was considered for worldwide distribution.

I could be wrong - after all, the leaf has a very low cocaine content - but I would think the mere mention of a product containing cocaine would be met with all the expected panic that comes from a century of demonization.

The other thing which springs to mind if and when such a South American product is approved (non-genetically engineered), is that without a doubt the cocaine level would have to be reduced to comply with international stds. If the products ever took off, there's no doubt this could also provide opportunities for diversion by the Cartels or those in charge of disposing extracted alkaloids.

There's some interesting what if's associated with changing the purpose of a drug crop to something worth much less money and legal. Another concerns the availability and price of cocaine. If there was a bump in the US supply due to diverting coca leaf for health products, teas etc., the price would rise and more cocaine would be produced/diverted to fill the gap. I therefore see such a move as welcomed but not without problems, any of which could make some objectives difficult to achieve.

The main concern then left for authorities to focus on would then be whether any potential exists for viable extraction from the dried teabags or drink products. It's likely it wouldn't be worthwhile so the product may stand a chance in an optimistic "Brave Knew World" of the future.

Good article

 

[Leprechaun]

I suspect it could also compete with the coffee market. Which I am sure would take a dive. Perhaps however a new industry could take off and those involved in the organised crime section could become the large distributors or producers of these drinks. Much of our culture is steering towards the health drink and health food that is currently prevalant. Drinks such as V, Lift plus etc... could do with another ally in competing with Coca Cola Corporation. Ironic that Coca Cola used to have Coca leaf in it and that its next competitor could be a drink with Coca leaf in it.

Indeed P_d, I wonder whether many people would be buying hundreds of bottles and doing extractions to obtain pure cocaine

Still, I would love the opportunity to sample one of the Peruvian energy drinks. I remember that cocaine used to be in childrens cough medicine in the late 1900th century.

On another note. From what I see around me, the drug war is being lost by the drug-warriors. Who knows, in ten years we could see the end of it and perhaps have greater personal freedom and responsibility to look forward to.

 

[phase_dancer]

The Famous 1850's Vin Tonique Mariani Coca Wine

Endorsed by Pope Leo XIII, and enjoyed by the wealthy of the time.
Pic from here

The bottle pictured in the High Times encyclopedia of Recreational Drugs is unopened and appears in almost new condition. My copy got permanently borrowed some years ago so I can't post a picture.

Some History on the Coca Leaf



In the ancient Incan empire the coca leaf was an integral element of the fabric of society. Use of the leaf was restricted to certain classes and purposes and was regulated by a system of social controls accepted by all (Mortimer 1974; Grinspoon & Bakalar 1976). The Spanish destroyed this system when they conquered Peru.

After a brief attempt to eradicate coca chewing as a satanic vice, the new Spanish authorities decided to allow it as a means of getting more work out of Indians( like coffee on the office ). Most of the conquerors had low opinions of the Indians and did not believe their tales of wonderful effects of the divine leaf. Those Europeans who condescended to try coca often did not feel anything from it, possibly because they did not bother to learn the art of chewing it in the Indian manner and possibly because they approached it with a negative set (Weil 1977; Mortimer 1974; Grinspoon & Bakalar 1976).

By the late 1800's Europeans finally tried to incorporate it into their medicine, mostly in the form of alcoholic tonics and wines containing extracts of the leaf. The most famous of these tonics was Vin Mariani a la Coca du Perou (Mariani 1896; Andrews & Solomon 1975; Mortimer 1974; Groff 1975).

Albert Niemann is the chemist that isolated cocaine from coca and pharmacologists represented this pure alkaloid to be the sole substance of interest in the leaf in concentrate. Average coca leaves contain only 0.5% cocaine, and as the Indians chew them, this low dose enters the body very slowly. Cocaine is but one of a number of compounds that act synergistically to produce the characteristic effects of coca; its separation from all the flavors and nutrients of the whole leaf as well as from the other alkaloids that modify its stimulating action changes the chemistry of coca (Martin 1970; Weil 1975).

It is most significant that the "terrible effects" of cocaine, which justified passage of anti-cocaine laws at the turn of the century, were consequences of unwise medical use of the drug by physicians. To this day, the vast majority of deaths from cocaine have occurred in medical circumstances rather than recreational ones (Weil 1977; Woods & Downs 1973; Ashley 1975; Grinspoon & ,Bakalar 1976).

The abuse potential of coca leaf is low relative to cocaine and the most powerful form 'crack'. This is so, first, because the concentration of active compounds in the leaf is small and, second, because the best way of using coca -holding a quid of leaves in the mouth in an alkaline solution and sucking the juices out of them over the better part of an hour - ensures a gradual rise of cocaine in the bloodstream. In leaf form, coca provides some essential vitamins and minerals (Duke, Aulik & Plowman 1975).

Ref and article here

 

[Samadhi]

A bottle of that would go down a treat, being a wine buff and all!