First lady of Peru hails coca

Washington Times ^ | Wednesday, February 23, 2005

[JohnHuang2]

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Peru's first lady said yesterday that coca, which contains cocaine, cannot be stamped out because it has been used for thousands of years. Besides, she said, it is good for you. "Coca has many, many virtues in addition to health and ritualistic" uses, anthropologist Elaine Karp, wife of Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, said in a speech at George Washington University. According to the State Department, Peru is the world's second-largest producer of coca leaf, from which cocaine is extracted. The United States has spent millions of dollars trying to eradicate coca crops in Peru, 90 percent of which goes to illegal trafficking.

[Larry381]

Has Teresa Heinz Kerry Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira Heinz moved to Peru?

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

"Has Teresa Heinz Kerry Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira Heinz moved to Peru?"
Were her white gin soaked grapes white because after soaking them in gin, they were then rolled in cocaine?
This might be better (not) than crack cocaine.

[Selous]

"Coca has many, many virtues in addition to health and ritualistic" uses,

And these would be......?

[A. Pole]

"Coca has many, many virtues in addition to health and ritualistic" uses,

And these would be......?

That it provides nice free market profits for Peru and other Latin American countries. She must have taken page from the XIXc English (and some American traders) who made the fortunes on opium trade with China (this is how Hong Kong was build).

[Question_Assumptions]

Thousands of years ago, the Moche were slitting people's throats, defleshing their bones, and playing with their articulated skeletons like macabre puppets in Peru. Just because your ancestors did that, was it a good thing?

[sully777]

Thousands of years ago, the Moche were slitting people's throats, defleshing their bones, and playing with their articulated skeletons like macabre puppets in Peru. Just because your ancestors did that, was it a good thing?

---

We can't judge. The Moche loved their children and were moral to their loved ones. Just because they ate human flesh doesn't mean we can judge them. One culture is the same as another. One act is the same as the other. Conservative or cannibal? Same. Coca or coffee? Same.

[Selous]

That it provides nice free market profits for Peru and other Latin American countries. She must have taken page from the XIXc English (and some American traders) who made the fortunes on opium trade with China (this is how Hong Kong was build).

No argument there. Brits and Americans are still making fortunes on opium and its derivatives. I wasn't moralising, just trying to figure out what (in addition to medicinal and narcotic uses) she meant by "many, many virtues"