Putting coca leaves in your mouth before you start your work day is typical in many parts of South America. It's like drinking your cup of coffee.
However... drying and powdering it, cutting it with a handful of chemicals, and illegally distributing it is what gives it a bad name. Same goes for those pushing for more and more potent strands of marijuana. Many people think that "faster", "stronger" and "more" is always an improvement.
"And in fact, what’s most amazing is that this scare isn’t new. In the US, in the mid 1980s, during Reagan’s “war on drugs”, it was claimed that cannabis was 14 times stronger than in 1970, which rather sets you thinking. If it was 14 times stronger in 1986 than in 1970, and it’s 25 times stronger today than the beginning of the 1990s, does that mean it is now, in fact, 350 times stronger than 1970?
That’s not even a crystal in a plant pot. That’s impossible. That would require more THC to be present in the plant than the total volume of space taken up by the plant itself"
Oh yeah. In fact, coca leaves used to be distributed by the Catholic church.
Now, I totally agree with the part about the chemicals. I mean, you can do the same thing with coffee: taking caffeine pills is dangerous and can lead to a fatal OD.
However... drying and powdering it, cutting it with a handful of chemicals, and illegally distributing it is what gives it a bad name. Same goes for those pushing for more and more potent strands of marijuana. Many people think that "faster", "stronger" and "more" is always an improvement.