Bolivia wants the coca out of Coca-Cola

Bolivia’s coca growers are demanding that Coca-Cola drop the word Coca from its name. A group of coca industry representatives passed a resolution saying that international companies should refrain from using the word coca in their commercial names. The resolution also urges the United Nations to decriminalize the shrub. The coca growers argue that the sacred plant is part of Bolivia’s cultural heritage, which is true, but disingenuous when you take into account that the traditional crop now underpins a global illicit industry whose profits run in the billions. (Just today, Mexican police found $206 million in drug cash in a Mexico City mansion.)

This effort at trying to “own” the word coca reminds me of Ethiopia’s effort to trademark the names of three of its coffee-producing regions. In this case though, it is a publicity stunt aimed primarily at a domestic constituency, and the latest step in President Evo Morales’s struggling campaign to recast the image of the coca leaf (which is only a mild stimulant until it is processed into cocaine). Morales, who emerged from the ranks of coca growers, hopes—probably in vain—that a legal market for coca tea, flour, and liquor can emerge to divert the coca harvest away from the illegal market for the popular drug.

Meanwhile, The Coca-Cola Company issued a statement declaring that its brand name is protected under Bolivian law. It also denied, yet again, that it has ever used cocaine as an ingredient. (It made no mention of whether it has ever used coca leaves in its refreshing beverages. An old label, though, lists coca leaves as an ingredient.)

It all seems a bit counterproductive to me. If coca growers want to recast the image of their plant as a legitimate, marketable crop, then isn’t inclusion of the word coca in the world’s most widely known brand something that would actually further that goal?