94 Coca
persons drinking tea steeped from such leaves may be positive for cocaine
use.
Coca paste.This substance is made from coca leaves but has the same sort
of relationship to them that 100 proof alcohol has to 3.2 beer. Paste is yielded
midway in the process of refining cocaine from coca; by volume the paste is
anywhere from about 40% to 90% cocaine, thus as potent as typical street
varieties of cocaine itself. Some persons desiring cocaine sensations prefer
paste, which can be smoked without the heat destroying cocaine’s drug effects.
Such persons routinely add the paste to tobacco ormarijuana. Because of coca
paste’s high potency, a user basically receives the same impact as with using
cocaine. Descriptions of coca paste smoking and crack smoking are similar:
euphoria, insomnia, compulsive use. Adverse effects duplicate those of cocaine
(even including “coke bugs”—a hallucination of vermin crawling under the
skin). Using coca paste is very different from using coca leaves. The difference
can be inferred from a 1996 report that combined surveys involving over
24,000 persons in several countries of the Andes region. In 1965 about 13% of
Peru’s population apparently used coca leaves, but only 0.8% to 3% of persons
in the 1996 multicountry survey reported “lifetime” coca paste or cocaine
use—meaning people had tried them at least once; the percentage of regular
users would be lower yet. Direct comparison of those 1965 and 1996 figures
would be invalid because of difference in dates and survey designs, but the
huge gap between their percentages is consistent with a general rule that the
stronger a drug is, the less popular it is. Also, the kinds of persons who use
coca leaves and coca paste differ. The 1965 figure included over half the la-
borers in Peru’s countryside. The 1996 survey found coca paste and cocaine
to be used predominantly by educated middle-class urbanites. A 1992 study
of hospitalized coca paste smokers also found most to be middle class, but
almost as many were from a low-income background.
Additional scientific information may be found in:Favier, R., et al. “Effects of Coca Chewing on Hormonal and Metabolic Responses
during Prolonged Submaximal Exercise.”Journal of Applied Physiology80 (1996):
650–55.
Grinspoon, L., and J.B. Bakalar. “Coca and Cocaine as Medicines: An Historical Re-
view.”Journal of Ethnopharmacology3 (1981): 149–59.
Hamner, J.E., III, and O.L. Villegas. “The Effect of Coca Leaf Chewing on the Buccal
Mucosa of Aymara and Quechua Indians in Bolivia.”Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine,
and Oral Pathology28 (1969): 287–95.
Heath, D.B. “Coca in the Andes: Traditions, Functions and Problems.”Rhode Island
Medical Journal73 (1990): 237–41.
Jeri, F.R., et al. “The Syndrome of Coca Paste.”Journal of Psychoactive Drugs24 (1992):
173–82.
Negrete, J.C. “Coca Leaf Chewing: A Public Health Assessment.”British Journal of Ad-
diction to Alcohol and Other Drugs73 (1978): 283–90.
Weil, A.T. “Coca Leaf as a Therapeutic Agent.”American Journal of Drug and Alcohol
Abuse5 (1978): 75–86.
Zapata-Ortiz, V. “The Chewing of Coca Leaves in Peru.”International Journal of the
Addictions5 (1970): 287–94.