COCA IS AMONG DRINK'S 'REAL THING' INGREDIENTS

CHIPIRIRI, Bolivia -- As he sipped Coca-Cola from a plastic glass at the
coca market in this jungle village, Marcelo Jancko proudly pointed out that
he plays a small role in the making of the world's No. 1 soft drink. A coca
farmer, Jancko sells some of his crop to an export company that ships the
leaves to the United States. There, a pharmaceutical firm removes the
cocaine alkaloid and sends the mulch to Coca-Cola as flavoring, a State
Department official said.

"Sometimes they buy everything in the market," Jancko said.

In the nearby town of Sacaba, Bolivian Army Col. Gaston Orellana said that
buyers for Coca-Cola had recently stopped by the local coca market. He
pulled out a shipping document for 22,000 kilograms of coca leaves stamped
with a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seal.

Because coca is on the U.N. list of dangerous substances, it can only be
exported in small quantities.

"It's all very closely supervised," said Francisco Alvarez, head of the
U.S. State Department's Narcotics Affairs Section in Bolivia.

He estimated that Coca-Cola buys about 200 metric tons of coca leaves
annually for its formula. A spokesman at Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta
declined to comment on the soft drink's secret formula.

Today, many soft drinks are laced with caffeine. But a century ago, the
promise of a lift from the small traces of cocaine found in coca-based
beverages was their main appeal.

Coca-Cola was invented in 1864. A turn-of-the-century ad boasted: "Tired?
Then drink Coca-Cola. It relieves exhaustion."

In 1914, cocaine alkaloid was removed from the coca leaves used in Coke's
formula after a fierce campaign by Harvey Wiley, a Protestant minister,
according to Jorge Hurtado, who runs the Coca Museum in La Paz. Wiley's
drive led to the prohibition of cocaine in the United States.

Although Bolivia produces far more coca than Coca-Cola requires, peasant
farmers still find it a bit odd to see U.S.-funded eradication teams
chopping down acres of coca.

Coca-Cola "is a huge company that uses (coca), and now they are trying to
wipe it out," said Maximo Olivera, a coca farmer in Chipiriri.

- -- JOHN OTIS