#871: The “Divine Leaf” with 8,000+ Years of Use — Exploring the Many Benefits of Coca with Dr. Andrew Weil and Wade Davis

2026-06-25

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"Coca is to cocaine what potatoes are to vodka" — Dr. Andrew Weil and Wade Davis on the health benefits, sacred history, and unjust prohibition of the most misunderstood plant on Earth.Dr. Andrew Weil is a pioneer in integrative medicine and founder of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, where he holds the Lovell-Jones Endowed Chair and serves as Clinical Professor of Medicine and Professor of Public Health.Wade Davis is an ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker. From 2014 to 2024 he served as Professor of Anthropology and BC L...

"Coca is to cocaine what potatoes are to vodka" — Dr. Andrew Weil and Wade Davis on the health benefits, sacred history, and unjust prohibition of the most misunderstood plant on Earth.

Dr. Andrew Weil is a pioneer in integrative medicine and founder of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, where he holds the Lovell-Jones Endowed Chair and serves as Clinical Professor of Medicine and Professor of Public Health.

Wade Davis is an ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker. From 2014 to 2024 he served as Professor of Anthropology and BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia, and from 2000 to 2013 as Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society.

Connect with the Beneficial Plant Research Association (BPRA): Website (scroll down to donate) | Coca Leaf Research | Coca Leaf Documentary | Coca Leaf Retreat

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Timestamps:

[00:00:00] Start.
[00:02:38] When coca tea cured my brutal altitude sickness in Chile.
[00:04:01] Andy meets coca, 1965: the Andes' master medicine for gut, energy, mood, metabolism.
[00:06:20] 14 alkaloids, one scapegoat.
[00:07:11] The paradox: one remedy for both diarrhea and constipation.
[00:11:37] 8,000 years, zero addiction — and the 1975 study no one wanted to run.
[00:13:11] Eradication began 60 years before there was a cocaine problem.
[00:16:27] Two nations inside Peru: alcohol versus coca.
[00:17:05] The 1950 UN commission that dictated coca policy by pseudoscience, fear, and racism.
[00:18:10] Filed beside fentanyl and heroin; 250,000 families and the price of peace.
[00:20:03] What coca actually feels like: milder than half a coffee, no crash, no withdrawal.
[00:24:19] Decoupling the leaf from the cartels; why crop substitution is a fantasy.
[00:25:54] Domesticated three times; the accident of Schedule II.
[00:27:49] The sacred leaf: k'intu, cruceta, Pachamama, runakuna.
[00:31:11] Hayo in the Sierra Nevada, and Latin America's most-denied gift.
[00:32:53] The wedge in the door: demand, the FDA, and an entrepreneur's gold mine.
[00:40:22] The story coca deserves — a film, green powders, and one good study.
[00:43:12] Monkey mind, the tax of consciousness, and an 84th birthday on coca.
[00:47:35] Who to fund: McCurdy and the hunt for legal leaves.
[00:49:17] Could coca treat cocaine addiction? Cost, and NIDA's timing.
[00:53:18] "Green cocaine" at the airport: coca is to cocaine as potatoes are to vodka.
[00:56:58] A 24-hour ritual run powered entirely by coca.
[00:59:07] Why two men gave their careers to one leaf — and the pharmaceutical body count.
[01:06:22] America's legal cocaine capital, and Coke's secret recipe.
[01:09:08] No accident: the hideous prose behind laws we still obey.
[01:15:42] Parting thoughts.