Les feuilles de coca

« stamina and also reduces hunger and feed the person who chews.

At a nutritional level ‘one hundred grams ofBolivian coca more than satisfied the recommended daily allowances of calcium, iron, phosphorus vitamin A, oxygenand riboflavin'.In text reference: (Thorpe:2000)A recent report by the WHO (World Health Organisation) also demonstrates that in its natural state, it is not harmfulto health, and even Harvard University found that this would be one of the best nutrients in the world.

A typicalexample would be the Bolivian miners which never go into the mines without a big bag of coca leaves.

This isessential because the amount of oxygen underground proves to be very low.In text reference: (http://www.cocainerehabtreatment.com/cocaine-history)In text reference: (Silva:2011) Obviously when we look at all the properties that the plant offers, there is a huge potential market for this product.The question may arise, why the Andeans peoples are still so poor? And why they do not use this gift from motherearth for the export and the market extension? The answer is simple in 1961 the single convention on NarcoticDrugs United Nations said that coca cultivation was going to be universally illegal, except for a few crops fortraditional use in Bolivia and Peru.

It is necessary to learn that only one company in the world has been allowed tomake a commercial use of it and make millions of dollars the giant (Coca-Cola). In text reference: (Silva:2011)In text reference: (Thorpe:2000) As mentioned earlier the coca has been used for different purposes which proved to be beneficial for the body, butis this only beneficial? Is there no hidden shadow? Indeed some people regarded the coca leaf as harmful for thebody and mind.

Everyone knows what the word drug means; it is a chemical substance that affects the processesof the mind or body.Today we are speaking about cocaine, cocaine is an alkaloid extracted from a natural shrub from South America:the coca.

It has to be mixed with various chemical substances before being called cocaine; this is why thecommodity does not look the finished product.

It then presents itself as a white powder.In the nineteen century physicians used it as an anaesthetic, allowing the patient to not feel pain during surgicalprocedures.Cocaine is a drug which can lead to a very strong psychological dependence.

The effects caused by cocaine areextremely rapid and intense; it usually gives great confidence and a feeling of intense pleasure.

It is what can bedetermined as ‘the positive effect of cocaine' but this is not where the problem occurs.When cocaine is consumed over a long period of time or high doses, feelings are such as hallucinations, paranoia,aggression, depression followed by a loss of appetite and an increased of the body temperature.

This is where theproblem becomes harmful for the body and the mind. Illegal coca plantations are significant in three countries, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia.Other areas of marginal significance also exist in other Latin American countries such as (Ecuador, Brazil, andPanama).

The illicit cultivation of coca, which probably occupies thousands of hectares in Latin America annuallyproduce several thousand tons of coca, which means tons of cocaine.

It is actually responsible for a significant partof deforestation and pollution of rivers in the country concerned.In text reference (Thorpe:2000)In text reference (Leeuwerck:2002) We have previously discussed the fact that the coca leaf is a natural plant part of the environment in Bolivia, Peru,and Columbia which grow in the mountains.

We also discovered that for Andeans people the coca was part of theirculture and also a really strong symbol of fraternity and equality in their social system.

It gave them courage,helped them to support the efforts and was a part of the act of prayer.

On another more practical standpoint, cocaenters into the composition of cosmetic products like (shampoo, toothpaste...).We also found that the coca leaf has many virtues such as being a strong anaesthetic, rich in oxygen and animportance source of nutrients.On another hand the finding that the coca leaf was not only beneficial, it could also be dangerous to the humanbody and the mind when it was consumed in very large quantities and could cause hallucinations and paranoia.Is coca leaf a gift from mother earth or poison for the body and madness for the mind?All depends on what side we stand, people can have different point of view and everyone is free to choose sides.The coca leaf is simply a product of our mother earth; the Andeans people leaving in these different countriesshould have the rights to use their plant as they wish, of course for their beneficial properties.

But if they wereallowed to export their own products like shampoo, toothpaste, medicines they would definitely have a betterquality of life for themselves and their families.

Unfortunately, governments watched only the bad side of the plantand did not pay attention to the people living there.

At the end it is always the same minorities of people who sufferand get a precarious life.Indeed far from being a life choice by the peasants, coca simply allows thousands of Andean peasants to survive.. »