"coca sek" news and stories

At the end of last year, Nick posted about Coca Sek, a soft drink that was being produced by the Nasa community, indigenous people to southern Colombia. The carbonated, citrus-flavored soft drink is made from coca leaves, the same coca leaves that are processed with solvents and other chemicals to produce cocaine. However, the narcotic form, cocaine, is foreign to the Nasa people, for whom the coca leaf is sacred. Nasa people consume coca leaves by simply chewing them and in the form of food and tea.

Despite controversy with respect to indigenous peoples' rights, drugs, economies, Coca Sek sales are gaining ground. What was initially a production volume of 3,000 bottles a week has almost tripled. Governments are backing off the Nasa people who are claiming sovereignty, the Nasa people are trying to "mainstream" coca leaves by promoting their pain-killing, nutritive, and spiritual benefits. Additionally, the producers of Coca-Sek are paying a higher price for coca leaves - about $15/bag of leaves - which is higher than what drug traffickers offer. That makes Coca-Sek an effective weapon in the war on drugs because "each leaf that goes to making the drink is one leaf less for the narcos."

Still, I highly doubt that Coca Sek will ever make it to the US.

A small company in southern Colombia has recently started manufacturing a carbonated soda made with the extract of coca, the stimulating shrub from which cocaine is made. The company, Empresa Colombiana de la Coca, is owned and operated by a group of Nasa Indians, an indigenous people that have used coca leaves for centuries. The soda, called Coca-Sek, has apparently won the approval of local tasters and the "tea-like" flavor is supposedly somewhere between 7-Up and ginger ale, according to a recent AP story. The name is Nasa for "coca of the sun."

The soda's release is also a political statement, as area stores have refused to sell Coca-Cola in protest of the company's treatment of local union leaders. While the soda is legal to distribute in some areas in South America, its producers are doubtful that it will reach the U.S. anytime soon. They currently have a limited distribution outfit and are in the process of acquiring a truck of their own.

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