Pharmacology 101: Why the effects of coca are different to cocaine (2025)

Purpose: The condemnation of coca chewing in the 1950 UN-ECOSOC report, as well as the subsequent deliberations at the World Health Organisation, which led to the inclusion of coca leaf in List 1 of the 1961 Single Convention, studiously avoided - in their treatment of coca chewing - any discussion of the marked differences in the route and rate of absorption of coca alkaloids by this method, as opposed to the much more rapid methods of assimilation of cocaine in hydrochloride or free-base form. The purpose of this paper is to address the significance of the route and rate of absorption of coca alkaloids and other derivatives through the gut, bucal membranes, lungs, and nostrils - which together determine the amount of cocaine ingested. Despite the fact that these different forms offer a wide range of potential cocaine intakes, prohibition laws ignore the specific features of coca chewing, and are based on the concentrated product, cocaine hydrochloride.
Design/methodology/approach: A viewpoint paper, supported with literature and by the author's ethnographic accounts as an anthropologist.
Findings: There are many different forms of administering coca leaves, and even products containing cocaine hydrochloride, that demonstrate safe and healthy forms for the consumer. Traditional forms like coca chewing and mambe powder contain approximately 0.7% alkaloid, so even if extraction were very efficient, an average 3 g would only yield 21 mg of cocaine. As cocaine is very poorly absorbed through the gut, innovative forms like coca tea, tooth pastes, shampoos, wine and toffees, have negligible effects on the user. Henman thus objects to the prohibition of the coca leaf and its equation with cocaine, which is rooted in racial prejudices and false science. This paper reflects on the wide ranges of safe and healthy uses of coca leaf, and proposes regulatory forms of coca products to serve the reasonable demands of contemporary coca chewers and coca product users in- and outside of Latin America.
Originality/value: An ethnographic account on "soft and slow" forms of administering coca leaves and cocaine hydrochloride, which envisages a regulatory market that serves the reasonable demand for coca leaves and products. [Author's abstract]