Cocaine - History of Coca

(History of Coca) "Archaeological evidence has confirmed that the coca leaf has been cultivated and used by the indigenous people of the Andes region for at least 4,000-5,000 years while other estimates put this as far back as 20,000 years. By the time of the Spanish colonial conquest, coca use extended all the way from what is today Costa Rica and Venezuela, through the Brazilian Amazon (coca’s place of origin) and on down to Paraguay, northern Argentina and Chile."