coca kintuy

as the primary social binder in quechua and aymara societies, quite a bit of coca is chewed every day (i used to buy a kilo bag every week at the market). coca has a many thousand-year old andean tradition behind it (far too complex to get into here) - and so if america keeps trying to eradicate coca fields in the andes, there is much more at stake than disrupting illicit drug manufacture and export. recent events in bolivia are heartening...