“Coca is to cocaine what potatoes are to vodka” – Dr. Andrew Weil and Wade Davis on the health benefits, sacred history, and unjust prohibition of the world’s most misunderstood plant.
Dr. Andrew Weil is a pioneer in integrative medicine and founder of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, where he holds the Lovell-Jones Endowed Chair and serves as Professor of Clinical Medicine and Professor of Public Health.
Wade Davis is an ethnographer, writer, photographer and filmmaker. From 2014 to 2024 he served as Professor of Anthropology and BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia, and from 2000 to 2013 as Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society.
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The “Divine Leaf” With 8,000+ Years of Use – Exploring the Many Benefits of Coca with Dr. Andrew Weil and Wade Davis
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Transcript
Show Notes
- Connect with Dr. Andrew Weil:
Website | X | Instagram | Facebook
Website | X| Instagram | Facebook
- Connect with Beneficial Plant Research Association (BPRA):
Website | Coca Leaf Research | Coca Leaf Documentary | Coca Leaf Retreat
Appearances of Previous Guests
- Dr. Andrew Weil – Wellness, Herbal Medicine, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #350
- Dr. Andrew Weil – 4-7-8 Breathing Method, Cannabis, Uses of Coca Leaf, Revival of Demonic Plants, Kava for Anxiety, Lessons from Wade Davis, Psychedelic Renaissance, Way Out of Depression, Myths from 50+ Travels in Japan, Matcha Benefits | The Tim Ferriss Show #615
- Legendary Explorer Wade Davis – How to Be the Designer of Your Life, The Divine Leaf of Immortality, Rites of Passage, Voodoo Demystified, Optimism as a Purpose in Life, How to Become a Successful Writer, Psychedelics, Monetizing Your Art of Life, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #652
Books and Films
Articles, Research, and Relevant Resources
- The New Politics of Coca by Andrew Weil | The New Yorker
- The Secret History of Coca by Wade Davis | Rolling Stone
- The Therapeutic Value of Coca in Modern Medicine by Andrew T. Weil | Journal of Ethnopharmacology
- Coca: High Altitude Medicine of the Ancient Incas | Wilderness & Natural Medicine
- Does Coca Chewing Affect Physiology At High Altitude? | Indian Journal of Clinical Biochemistry
- Coca: History and Medicinal Importance of an Ancient Andean Tradition | US National Library of Medicine
- Beta-Carotene and Smoking: Can the Combination Cause Cancer? | Healthline
- Nutritional Value of Coca by James A. Duke, David Aulik, and Timothy Plowman | Multipurpose Library
- Focused on Colonialism, Coca Prohibition May End | Filter
- Coca Chronicles: Bolivia Challenges UN Coca Leaf Ban | Washington Office on Latin America
- Report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Coca Leaf | UN Social and Economic Council (ECOSOC)
- Fact Sheet: The Coca Leaf and the UN Drug Treaties | International Center
- Coca Yes, Cocaine No? | International Center
- Legends of Coca | International Center
- A Look at the Effects of Cuca, or Coca, Erythroxylon Coca Leaves by Robert Christison | British Medical Journal (1876)
- Travel Medicine, Coca and Cocaine: Demystifying and Rehabilitating Erythroxylum | Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine, and Vaccines
- My Favorite “Smart Drugs” | Tim Ferriss
- Colombia: Cocaine Production Could Increase by 53 Percent in 2023 | UN Office on Drugs and Crime
- Origins of Coca: Museum Genomics Reveals Multiple Independent Houses from Progenitor Erythroxylum Gracilipes | Systematic Biology
- Drug Planning | US Drug Enforcement Administration
- Returning to the Village: Community Ethnographies and the Study of Andean Culture in Retrospective edited by Francisco Ferreira with Billie Jean Isbell | University of London
- Where They Sing to the River: The Sierra Nevada, Heart of the World by Wade Davis | A literary hub
- The Coca Chronicles: Monitoring the UN Coca Review | International Center
- Cutting Sugar From Drinks With ‘World’s Most Illegal Plant’ | FoodNavigator
- Psilocybin Proves Promising Treatment for Cocaine Use Disorder, According to UAB Study | UAB news
- Dr. Nora Volkow – Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) | The Tim Ferriss Show #673
- RFK Jr. Launches Program to Prevent “Overprescription” of Psychiatric Drugs | CNN
- Philadelphia CBP Finds “Crude” Cocaine in Shipment from Colombia | US Customs and Border Protection
- Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies | STOP
- Annual Performance of Borders (from Light at the End of the World by Wade Davis) | It’s time to play
- Mycophobia: The Fear of Mushrooms Reinterpreted | North Spore
- Argentina Has Powerful Secret Weapon in World Cup Finals by Wade Davis | Rolling Stone
- A Look at the Effects of Cuca, or Coca, Erythroxylon Coca Leaves by Robert Christison | British Medical Journal
- The Weird (and Wired) Truth Behind Coca-Cola by Claudia Geib | The one who eats
People
Organizations and Institutions
Companies & Products
Objects, Compounds, & Concepts
Time stamps
- [00:00:00] Start.
- [00:02:38] When coca tea cured my severe altitude sickness in Chile.
- [00:04:01] Andy meets coca, 1965: the main medicine of the Andes for the gut, energy, emotions, body.
- [00:06:20] 14 alkaloids, one scapegoat.
- [00:07:11] Paradox: one remedy for both diarrhea and constipation.
- [00:11:37] 8,000 years, zero addiction – and a study in 1975 no one wanted to run.
- [00:13:11] Abolition began 60 years before the cocaine problem.
- [00:16:27] Two nations within Peru: alcohol versus coca.
- [00:17:05] The 1950 UN commission that dictated the coca policy was based on pseudoscience, fear, and prejudice.
- [00:18:10] Listed alongside fentanyl and heroin; 250,000 families and the price of peace.
- [00:20:03] What coca really is: milder than half a coffee, no crash, no withdrawal.
- [00:24:19] Separating the leaf from the cartels; why crop rotation is a dream.
- [00:25:54] It is done three times; risk of Schedule II.
- [00:27:49] Sacred leaf: k’intu, cruceta, Pachamama, runakuna.
- [00:31:11] Hayo in the Sierra Nevada, and the most forbidden gift in Latin America.
- [00:32:53] A wedge in the door: demand, the FDA, and the entrepreneurial gold mine.
- [00:40:22] The story coca deserves – film, green powders, and one good lesson.
- [00:43:12] The chimpanzee mind, the tax on consciousness, and the 84th birthday on coca.
- [00:47:35] Who to sponsor: McCurdy and legal leaf hunting.
- [00:49:17] Can coca cure cocaine addiction? Cost, and time of NIDA.
- [00:53:18] “Green cocaine” at the airport: coca is to cocaine as potatoes are to vodka.
- [00:56:58] A 24-hour habit run entirely sponsored by coca.
- [00:59:07] Why two men devote their careers to one leaf – and the body count of medicine.
- [01:06:22] The official cocaine capital of America, and the secret recipe for Coke.
- [01:09:08] It’s no accident: the terrifying prose behind the rules we still listen to.
- [01:15:42] Separate thoughts.
Interview excerpts
“If I tell you that there is a plant that you can take that gives you a little light, a little skip in your step, a sense of well-being that eliminates all these little sensations that we all suffer from as living beings, and it allows you to focus on the work, whatever that creative activity was, whether it was spinning wool or writing everything in digital code all day long. focus, without the feeling of being under the influence of any plant, with nothing as harsh as the second cup of coffee, and you find yourself at the end of the day ready to go at home, eat dinner, and do it all again the next day, the truth is that coca has this power to improve our lives.”
– Wade Davis
“[Coca is] It is as important in that population as peppermint and chamomile in European medicine. It is their main medicinal plant.”
— Andrew Weil
“Coca has been used by almost all Andean and Northwest Amazon cultures in South America for 8,000 years. And during that time, there is no evidence of any toxicity, let alone addiction.”
– Wade Davis
“In coca, there are 14 alkaloids. Cocaine is one of them. They all have the same chemical composition and none of them has ever been studied. Once we isolated it from the cocaine leaf, everyone lost interest in everything else.”
— Andrew Weil
“Coca is to cocaine what potatoes are to vodka.”
– Wade Davis
“As the anthropologist Catherine Allen said, denying people coca in the Andes is not the same as denying German beer or British tea or French coffee. It is actually an act of genocide because you can’t be rununacan, you can’t be Andean, Pachamama, if you don’t use the leaves.”
– Wade Davis
“I think that coca is a very perfect example of how we are wrong in our relationship with nature, we really fail to see that plant for what it is, we confuse it with this one part of it, and then we get ourselves into a very big problem.”
— Andrew Weil
“I feel that releasing coca is the last act of my professional life. I feel that sincerely.”
– Wade Davis
Do you want to hear another episode that unravels the curse and the blessing of coca? Listen to this one about the ethnobotanist Dr. Mark Plotkinwhere we learned about the 8,000-year history of the coca leaf, the varieties of coca and their uses, the gathering of the coca leaf among the Kogis of Northern Colombia, the illness that survived in the Andes, the entertainment of Richard Evans Schultes, ayahuasca and shamanic knowledge, biocultural preservation, and much more of the rainforest.