THE NEW POLITICS OF COCA
LETTER FROM THE ANDES about coca, the plant from which cocaine is derived. Andean Indians contend that it is a mistake to demonize coca, a plant they hold …
Amerigo Vespucci's 1499 account: "We found there the most bestial and ugly people we had ever seen: very ugly of face and expression, and all of them had their cheeks full of a green herb that they chewed constantly like beasts."