Ok, no, it’s not actually liquid cocaine.
But it IS a liqueur made using coca leaves.
And it IS for sale at the “Coca Leaf Experience” in downtown Amsterdam.
Our colleague Alejandro Pintamalli went to see the shop and find out more… (read more below)
Apparently, the coca leaves come from Bolivia… but the “alkaloid cocaine” is extracted here in Holland.
Of course, it’s not the first product to be made from coca leaves - Coca-Cola has been importing the leaves from Peru since the end of the 19th century.
With the coca leaf liqueur ‘Agwa de Bolivia’, the ’Coco Leaf Experience’ company is trying to improve the negative image of the coca leaf in countries beyond the Andes.
It’s not surprising that a photograph of Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, hangs on the wall of the Amsterdam shop where the liqueur is sold - at a UN drugs conference last year in Vienna, Mr Morales called for the plant to be removed from the UN’s list of illegal drugs saying, “The coca leaf is not cocaine”.
“We are unique in the world,” says ‘Coco Leaf Experience’ owner Tommy Burke. “We want to let people see the positive side of the coca leaf, because there is a big difference between the coca leaf and cocaine”.
Here is a link to the original text from Radio Netherlands.
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