The Coca Museum in La Paz

The Coca Museum in La Paz was created as an educational extension of the anti-narcotics efforts of Bolivia, the United States and the United Nations. But rather than exist as a tirade against the use of cocaine (which the museum staunchly opposes), it provides a compelling argument for the continued farming of coca throughout Bolivia. The argument necessarily brings in the fascinating history of the Bolivian highlands, to which coca is inextricably entwined (and which I´ll try to summarize below).

-Archaeologists have discovered that Andean cultures chewed coca leaves as much as 4,500 years ago; more than 2,000 years before Christ.
-The chewing of coca leaves causes a reaction in the body in which oxygen is absorbed by the lungs more efficiently; obviously this is helpful at the extreme altitudes of the Andes.
-During Colonial times, the Catholic Church banned the use of coca leaves, having determined it was 'an obstacle to Christianity'. But when it was learned that miners at Potosi (the sole source of income for the Spanish Empire) chewing coca leaves could work longer hours before succumbing to exhaustion, it was quickly made mandatory and heavily taxed-- making workers even more in debt to the empire.
-Today, more than 90% of men in the Yungas region of Bolivia chew coca leaves (my bus driver was eating them like a bag of potato chips).
-In the late 1800´s cocaine was developed as a medical anesthetic; supposedly Freud was the first user.
-Coca Cola contained cocaine until 1912.
-Certain countries are allowed to legally produce cocaine; the US is the largest producer of legal cocaine, and is produced by a subsidiary of Coca Cola.
-Coca Cola is still flavored with Bolivian coca leaves to this day.
-To produce cocaine requires large amounts of chemicals you don´t find in the jungle; these are knowingly imported by western corporations.
-The US consumes half of the world´s cocaine.