The Coca Leaf and Cocaine Papers

by George and Solomon Andrews (editor)

372 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although a number of 'papers' are included in this collection, the bulk of this book, more than half, consists of the text of a book published in the early 20th century. It's a good choice in that it is thorough, treating extensively the history of the Inca and of the conquest and colonization, the background of the contemporary ubiquity of coca consumption in the region, as well as of the science of coca and its chemical constituents. What's lacking, however, is editorial comment as regards subsequent research either confirming or disconfirming some of the claims and hypotheses propounded in that early review. The major point that came across for me was that while the coca experience is based on a complex interaction of mostly unstudied elements, the cocaine experience, the experience of just one of these elements, is quite different. While the former is almost universally benign, the latter has a real potential for abuse.

As regards the other papers, all of them dated in that the book itself dates from the early 70s, it is notable that Freud's works on cocaine, while mentioned, are not republished. Otherwise, I found Andrew Weil's essay and the summary report from Consumer's Union to be most informative, while the lengthy interview with the Harlem coke dealer was probably the most 'entertaining' and, in its way, informative as regards the whole subculture of dealers in illicit psychoactive substances.