Andy #24 wrote:Last time I checked Arak was Sri Lankan and you can't eat coke straight of the tree, the leafs do bugger all. Not sure if there are even those plants growing in the wild in Borneo. Maybe the headhunters lobotomised you...
1. Arak is also widely produced and used in much of the east - I was about 2 hours by canoe up the River Skrang from Serian in Sarawak with a group from the Royal Zoological Society of SA, of which I am a Life Member.
2. The cocaine concentration in the leaves is low - the South American peoples put the leaves in their cheeks and suck them gently providing an energy boost a bit like the caffiene in Coca-Cola.
3. The cocaine concentration in the
stone of the Coca Fruit is high enough to give a mild high.
4. There is no cocaine, or very little, in the flesh of the fruit.
5. The stuff on the streets in the west is highly concentrated and dangerous.
6. It is a native South American tree - as is the Peppercorn Tree common in Australia now - but, having been transorted to other tropical places, it is commonly planted as a wind break around the Pepper Vines used for commercial cropping in Sarawak where 90% of the world's pepper is, or was at the time, grown. I don't know whether any have gone "wild" but it seems reasonably likely.
7. In part of my my work I have to try to help people who have permanently damaged themselves with drugs and alcohol, so it is part of my job to try to encourage people to not do it to themselves - and I usually get highly paid to do it. I do it free sometimes because I
care about people damaging themselves in this way through ignorance and short-term thinking, and, having seen the results, I find it hard not to try to warn those who are taking great risks with their future health.
8. I respect your right to ignore my advice. You should respect my right to express my concern. Just don't be juvenile and abusive because what I say disturbs you and you would rather not think about it.