Turns out cocaine and coca leaves have been getting a bum rap. A Peru firm, National Coca Co., exports coca leaves and says if the U.S. allows Coca Cola to use the leaf, it should allow it for other uses.

ENACO, as [the company] is known for its Spanish acronym, is the Peruvian government's official buyer and merchandiser of coca leaves and one of only two companies in the world to produce refined cocaine for medical uses.

We have used coca in this country for 4,000 years. It is not a drug, but because of the negative image associated with one product it is considered evil,'' [General Manager] Hinostroza said in a recent interview. ``We are ready to export and have our products already in English for the U.S. market. We just have to get this prohibition lifted.''

What's good about coca?

Peasant farmers in the high Andes traditionally chew coca as a nutritional supplement and energy booster and use it in religious and fortune-telling rituals. Besides cocaine, which is one of 14 alkaloids in the leaf, coca has a long list of vitamins and minerals. Medically, cocaine is used as an anaesthetic in eye surgery.

Who can get some?

Cocaine, coca leaves and teas are all available for sale on ENACO's website. But there are strict controls on the cocaine, which ENACO sells for $1,000 a pound but which would bring about $50,000 on the illegal market. ''Purchase of cocaine has to be approved by drug-enforcement agencies in the importing country. We are very careful with the lab and with the exports,'' Hinostroza said.

A New Jersey multinational company, Stepan Co., also produces cocaine --from coca leaves it purchases from ENACO. Stepan has a special license from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration allowing it to import coca leaves. The company says it uses the leaves to make cocaine for ocular surgery. ENCAO says it does more, and wants a piece of the action.

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