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Opinion

Coca plant is more than potential drug

ZACH LEE
OPINION COLUMNIST 

Coca-Cola was thrust into an uncomfortable spotlight Wednesday when a Bolivian commission passed a resolution asking the soft drink giant to remove the word "Coca" from its name.

The commission is part of a larger attempt to rehabilitate the international image of the coca shrub, which by itself is a mild stimulant but is better known as being the base ingredient for cocaine. Bolivian President, Evo Morales is himself a former coca farmer and he has made it a priority of his administration to make coca a viable cash crop outside of the drug trade.

In the Andean region, coca has been used in its natural state for millennia, and even today, coca tea is used as an alternative to coffee in the nation's white-collar offices. Manual laborers also chew the leaf to get through long work days.

In a statement defending the value of its brand name, Coca-Cola reiterated past denials that cocaine had ever been an ingredient in the company's flagship soda, but it was tellingly silent on whether the coca leaf itself had ever been used, The Associated Press reported Friday.

The coca farmers on the commission contend that they are frustrated that the soft drink behemoth can profit by using the name of the plant but the growers themselves cannot export it legally, even though it could be used to make several non-snortable products, such as tea, flour and liquor.

And, as completely unrealistic as the commission's request is, it does highlight Coca-Cola's apparent exemption from the world of products that failed or were marginalized because of their surface relation to illicit substances. Marijuana-Cola would be a nice parallel, but on a more pragmatic scale, hemp is continually marginalized because of its relation to marijuana even though it has myriad practical uses and none of the psychedelic properties of marijuana.

Morales' close friendship with professional America-hater Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is one factor preventing the commission from getting any serious consideration from American companies or consumers. Of course, the biggest factor working against the commission is the fact that people all over the world like their Coke.

Some good Coke can give a little rush to someone's lunch break or even help an all-night study session last a little bit longer. It's easy to see why Americans would be quick to defend a company that turns out a product with those qualities. And if America's burgeoning soda-belly is any indication, Americans might as well admit to their Coke addiction.

That said, the strategy of eliminating the base ingredient in order to eliminate the final product seems out of place in most things that don't have to do with drugs or weapons of mass destruction. Eliminating coca is supposed to eliminate cocaine and making sure crazy people don't get enriched uranium is supposed to ensure that they won't get nuclear weapons. That's like eliminating children so no one can make child porn, but somehow people are still getting high and North Korea is in the nuclear club. 

Something is wrong with a strategy that simultaneously doesn't do what it is supposed to and eliminates the good that a base product could do on its own. Coca is good for making tea, uranium is good for making electricity, and kids are probably good for something too. 

Lee, an English/Spanish senior, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu