Talk:Coca in Bolivia

Dubious sections from US Department of State
Rephrase and replace when confirmed and NPOV
 * The cocaine industry had a generally deleterious effect on the Bolivian economy not to mention having a serious environmental impact on rivers and removal of forest for coca plantations. The cocaine trade greatly accelerated the predominance of the United States dollar in the economy and the large black market for currency, thereby helping to fuel inflation in the 1980s. The escalation of coca cultivation also damaged the output of fruits and coffee, which were mostly destined for local consumption. Coca's high prices, besides being generally inflationary, also distorted other sectors, especially labor markets. Manufacturers in the Cochabamba area during the 1980s found it impossible to match the wages workers could gain in coca, making their supply of labor unreliable and thus harming the formal economy.


 * When? About 65 percent of all Bolivian coca was grown in the Chapare region of Cochabamba Department; other significant coca-growing areas consisted of the Yungas of La Paz Department and various areas of Santa Cruz and Tarija Departments.

What are/were indigenous uses of the coca plant?
It seems to me that this topic is vitally important, yet completely missing from the wiki. Why was coca grown in the beginning? What benefit does it have to the indigenous people, outside of being a cash crop? As an herbal remedy, what uses was it put to? Who used it? Do they still? I remember from my studies of the Andean native peoples that coca was used as a mild stimulant to help people walk up and down the very steep mountains. Farms were arranged vertically, so each family had some land to plant at the top of the mountain, the middle & in the valley. The coca reportedly helped prevent altitude sickness as well as heart stress from walking. Is it still used this way? I think these questions are worth asking, and may lead to others. As-is, the article makes the coca growers out to be evil drug dealers out to kill Americans with cocaine. Surely they have their own agenda and purposes that have little to do with us. There is both US-centric, cultural, and political bias in the article. 2603:9000:6C08:E900:CD83:4BA4:5F01:CB22 (talk) 06:29, 24 July 2022 (UTC)