Several years ago I was invited to the Bolivian Consulate in New York. The gatherings were to promote the new president’s vision of Pan-Americanism and one of the main tenets was the legalization of coca leaves. I had chewed the aklaloid leaves in Peru to combat high-altitude sickness in the Andes and both my mistress Mrs. Carolina and I found the medicine very therapheutic while treking on the Incan Path, so I was pleasantly surprised to find bowls of coca leaves at the consulate.
I stuck a chaw in my cheek to experience the effects of the Andean plant.
The pain in my knee was gone and the weariness of a long day on 47th Street ebbed with each extra leaf.
The diplomats extolled the vitues of coca leafs to battle hunger and thirst as well as the alleviation of pain from headaches, rheumatism, wounds and sores.
As a tea coca provides essential minerals (calcium, potassium, phosphorus), vitamins (B1, B2, C, and E) and nutrients such as protein and fiber according to Wikipedia, however coca leaves have been demonized in the West starting with Coca Cola’s monopoly on selling the medicine to the masses, however the Deep South worried that “negro cocaine fiends” were raping white women and replaced coca with caffiene and sugar.
Coke is still in Coca Cola, but without any medical benefit to the consumer.
It’s time to free the leaf.
It’s good for you same as Guinness.