DESANDINIZATION of COCA

The time after my expulsion from Bolivia was not easy nor peaceful, but the fact to be safe and fine encouraged me to stay firm, albeit unquietly, on my ideals and commitments in and towards Life, under the blessing look of the sacred green Coca, suggesting new paths to explore.

The traditional use of Coca, except some pockets of inveterate prejudice, is recognized as a founding element of the Andean culture, so calling for a moral engagement to protect and enhance the sense of ritual and community aggregation.

Resuming the key points of botanical vision about the biodiversity of the Andean-Amazonian region, the sacred green Coca stands out as a resource of wide potentialities, whose beneficial aspects are little and poorly known in the world, with negative repercussions on its desirable enhancement.

The data on the nutritional content of Coca leave no room for doubt on the high added value, ready to become available to human nutrition, even compared to other common foods; the best way would probably be the aggregation of ground Coca leaves to other  nutritional ingredients, in relatively small percentages, considering the high concentration of its nutrients.

In the Andean-Amazonian regions the traditional use of Coca is practiced by men and women, theadults and the elderly ones, according to the described cultural patterns, which are preserved intact even in cases of mass migration, as it happened in the Chapare of Bolivia; however the ritual of Coca, with some exceptions, is not usual in children and young people habits; likewise in urban areas the use of Coca is basically limited to the infusion of leaves, the mate de Coca, or in occasional applications in traditional medicine, where the cultural roots still survive.

Keeping steady the traditional value of Coca and its ancestral rituals in the original context, reaffirming definitely its privileged position, it seems that no sustainable objections can be found to the proposal of going ahead to desandinization of Coca, meaning that a natural Andean resource, such as Coca, whose values are now scientifically recognized, becomes available as green products with Coca. under adequate presentation fitting into different cultural, social and climatic contexts, in advantage and benefit of all Mankind.

Of course a new transparent and fair legislation must – it’s a real MUST – be designed, according to clear criteria of safety and protection against any possible interception and manipulation by the illicit business networks.

Although the idea of desandinization seems so tough and difficult to be put in action, however, in a past not too far, still untainted by drug trafficking, the sacred green Coca had already come into desandinization, widespread and recognized in a number of precious and distinctive products described in other chapters.