The BBC reported that indigenous Bolivian coca planters have started a legal process to prevent Coca-Cola from using ‘Coca’ as a logo name, citing coca is as native to the Andean nation as hot dogs are to the USA.
The multinational company has retorted that their logo is protected by Bolivian law, however the Coca Committee of the Constitutional Assembly has deemed the “millennium-old coca plant” a “tangible, cultural heritage” and a “bioenergetic, strategic, renewable, economic, natural resource”, which could stop Coca-Cola from using the name, especially since there is no coca in the fizzy soda.
Unless that’s the secret ingredient to the Coca-Cola formula.
In 1998 Mrs. Carolina and I visited Peru.
I had intended to go on a massive coke binge, however the dealers regarded my face and saw ‘cop’. The cops conversely tracked me as a potential trafficker. Scoring in Lima proved impossible.
Cuzco the ancient Incan capitol is located 12000 feet above sea level. Breathing the thin atmosphere makes any effort a struggle. Quechan women sold coca leave on the street. I asked them for blow. Shaking their heads was another blow to my blow fest, so I bought a couple of bushels on coca leaves. Surprisingly they gave off a mild buzz. Mrs. Carolina partook of the holy leaves and we walked from the massive fortress atop the ‘navel of the earth’ to the town itself without gasping for air.
Later Mrs. Carolina and I were walking the Incan trail to Macchu Picu. We were accompanied by several DEA agents on holiday from a tour in Bolivia. Fit ex-marines. Our supply of coca leaves had Mrs. Carolina running down the trail like Steve McQueen’s escape in PAPILLON. The DEA agents refused any offer of the sacred leaves. We were sipping coca tea when they reached Macchu Picu in a terrible state.
It was like drinking a very strong cup of coffee.
A miracle drug.
Certainly better for the US mountain troops in Afghanistan than the Pentagon’s proposed plan to give soldiers Viagra to help them breathe, which the religious right rejected to avoid endangering the soldiers’ souls with impure fantasies.
Perish the thought.
Free Coca and marijuana too.