Cocaine coca plant cultivation

[stashbox]

Can the coca plant be cultivated outside of colombia? If so where and how? If not why not ?

[stashbox]

Not answering my own question but just developing it a bit.Obviously overlooked Bolivia and Peru and the fact they share the Andean Mountains.Does this have something to do with the answer? Is it an altitude thing as opposed to a climate and soil thing.? Its gotta be this or a combination of climate altitude and soil. From what i understand,Peruvians coca farmers are being persuaded by their goverment to grow bananas and avocados which also grow in any number of other countries. In fact it is very possible to grow avocado,s in the U.K quite easily,so whats the catch when it comes to he coca plant(apart from the illegality of doing so).

[Englishbird]

This is only a guess, but i would imagine that as with any plant you could grow it anywhere as long as you recreate the conditions it naturally grows at.  But having watched that program the other day, it looks like you have to produce a huge amount of plants in order to produce a small amount of cocaine, which may be a little difficult in your greenhouse!! :) - vile drug anyway if you ask me.

[Newt]

Hi Stashbox,
I spent 4 months in Peru last year and sipped the tea that is made from the coca leaves, watched the locals chew the leaves and sell baggies openly in markets. The leaves are supposed to help with altitude sickness. I also travelled to Equador where it is also grown. Bolivia is another country which grows it. As Englishbird has stated, different plants have different requirements for their survival. This is due to their genetics. It would be impossible to grow tropical plants in Iceland unless the environment were controlled.

One of the things that I noticed in my travels is the fact that the countries and places where coca is grown are near the equator where temperatures tend not to fluctuate radically. Even in the Andes, where temperatures were much cooler then in the Amazon Jungle, the fluctuation of temperatures was minor during the course of the year. They don't have seasons in most of South America such as winter, spring, summer and autumn like we do, but they have a dry season and a wet season. The temperatures stay consistant. My son lives in Bogota, Colombia and says that the temperatures just don't change.

You might find this an interesting read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca