Scientific distinctions between coca and cocaine support policy reform.

White, Dawson M.; Soberón Garrido, Ricardo; Conzelman, Caroline S.; Davis, Wade; Guislain, Claude; Henman, Anthony; Jara-Muñoz, Orlando Adolfo; Jelsma, Martin; Mejía, Susana; Montoya-Cataño, Daniel; Pérez-Escobar, Oscar Alejandro; Restrepo, David Alfonso; Saavedra-Rojas, Yenny Alejandra; Tariru, Imika

Scientific distinctions between coca and cocaine support policy reform.

Resource type

Journal article

Creator (person)

White, Dawson M.

ORCID

Soberón Garrido, Ricardo

ORCID

Conzelman, Caroline S.

ORCID

Davis, Wade

Guislain, Claude

Henman, Anthony

Jara-Muñoz, Orlando Adolfo

ORCID

Jelsma, Martin

Mejía, Susana

Montoya-Cataño, Daniel

ORCID

Pérez-Escobar, Oscar Alejandro

ORCID

Restrepo, David Alfonso

Saavedra-Rojas, Yenny Alejandra

ORCID

Tariru, Imika

Date published

November 20, 2025

Abstract

Ongoing review of international drug policy should correct long-standing, misguided, and harmful conflation The coca bush, a sacred South American crop plant, is classified alongside cocaine and heroin as a Schedule I controlled substance under international law. This scheduling, and the myriad effects of prohibition, have fostered a general perception that coca and its purified alkaloid cocaine are one and the same. Yet this conflation obscures a striking contrast: Whereas cocaine’s 165-year history is marked by health risks and social disruption, the use of coca leaf has played a positive role in Andean and Amazonian societies for thousands of years. Studies across the biological and social sciences corroborate coca leaf as a benign, nonaddictive stimulant and a culturally vital plant, profoundly different from its purified derivative. The World Health Organization (WHO)’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) is now reviewing the health effects of coca ( ), offering a rare opportunity to correct this misclassification and align international drug policy with scientific evidence and social reality.