Is drinking coca tea illegal?

Coca Tea or "Mate de Coca" in Peru.

Three days. That’s the suspension my husband received again after testing “positive” for minute traces of cocaine

The thing is, my husband has NEVER used or abused illegal substances in his life! As an international athlete he was constantly tested for everything from steroids to infectious STDs and not ONCE did consuming coca tea disqualify him from competition.

However, one night’s consumption of a cup of coca tea did garner him a 3 day suspension from work due to a random, urine sample drug test by walk-in clinic Solantic.

That leads me to question:

IS CONSUMING COCA TEA ILLEGAL IN THE UNITED STATES?

Bringing in multiple boxes of Delisse Coca Tea in 2007 through Miami International wasn’t considered illegal when it was physically inspected by U.S. Customs officers. Instead they taxed us on all the pisco and the jungle liquor, “RC,” that we brought in.

Searching the internet and I cannot find in  U.S. Federal or Florida State laws where it is legislated that the consumption of coca tea is illegal.

Who hasn’t heard the story of an employee or employment candidate testing positive for heroine after consuming one too many poppy seed bagels? But consuming a cup of coca tea? That’s a new one!

Peru has just commenced exportations of a beer made with coca leaf. According to the article from ecoworldy.com, the beer is being produced “to demonstrate that coca leaves are not cocaine“ and the author goes on to write that “Studies have shown consuming coca in these fashions does not cause a significant euphoric effect like cocaine, although when drinking tea ‘small but measurable amounts of cocaine are present in the bloodstream.’”

Well there we have it! Consuming coca tea can IN-FACT produce false positive test results, but it’s NO indication that cocaine was illegally used or abused by the subject.

What legal actions can an employee take then to protect themselves from unreliable, inaccurate and frankly unfair random drug testing?

The ACLU (who I’m admittedly not a big fan of) has a number of articles outlining the numerous cases in which random workplace drug testing has been deemed as UNCONSTITUTIONAL and a violation of one’s right to PRIVACY.

Montana, Iowa, Vermont and Rhode Island are States that have banned, through legislation, blanket or random drug testings in the private workplace in instances where the testing is unwarranted due to the absence of probable cause or reasonable suspicion. This is according to an ACLU article published on the Lectric Law Library website.

A Colorado independent think tank “Independence Institute” also published an article on their website i2i.org citing the presence of unfair and unreliable workplace, urine sample drug testing.

In the 2002 article by Ron Bain he points out:

“False positives (non-drug users showing up as drug users on drug tests) are inconsistent and variable but

still common with urine-based drug testing, according to Kent Holtorf, M.D., a court-accepted expert witness on urinalysis. Holtorfs book, Ur-Ine Trouble, indicates that false positives occur anywhere from 0.8 to 60% of the time with the EMIT immunoassay test (the most commonly utilized urine-based drug screen).”

My husband lives and works in Florida, a “Right to Work” State, that gives license to private employers to do virtually whatever they please, including unfair and unreliable random drug tests.

Generally, the purpose of a “right to work” State is to give employees the freedom to “join or financially support unions” as stated in a summary on the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc. website.

Legally, my husband’s hands are tied due to “right to do whatever“ laws that Florida as a State supports. Maybe a defamation suit is the last recourse if the situation turns sour.

However, although Florida does little to protect the privacy and rights of its private residents, a urine drug test policy was declared unconstitutional in the year 2000 in the case of a Hollywood, Florida man who lost a job offer from the city after he refused to take a drug test due to principle. He had previously been employed by the city as a temporary worker.

Not all is lost on employees that work in Florida or other “Right to Work” States, but that’s only if they work in the public sector, not the private.

Importing coca leaves for personal use is ILLEGAL, even for the use of brewing tea, but the government Customs and Border Protection website only specifies the actual LEAF, not the packaged tea bags!

The F.A.Q. section only contradicts the above in respect to importing teas. It states: “There are no restrictions on the importation of coffee, tea or spices for personal use…”

Well, which one is it Uncle Sam? Legal or Illegal? Miami Customs officers interpreted it to be “Legal” when we brought in multiple boxes of Coca Tea for personal use.

And as for my original question? Is drinking Coca Tea Illegal in the U.S.?

The answer is NO. There are not enough alkaloids in the tea for it to be considered illegal! So why does my husband’s employer request that he desist drinking coca tea? He’s not breaking any U.S. Federal or State laws and he’s not violating any company policy.

The authors of Coca-Tea blogspot have been kind enough to list the alkaloids contained in the Coca leaf:

• Cocaine

• Egnonin

• Pectin

• Papaine

• Hygrine

• Globuline

• Pyridine

• Quinoline

• Conine

• Cocamine

• Reserpine

• Benzoyne

• Inuline

• Atropine

If one wants to drink coca tea then they are entitled to drink it, just as much as they are legally entitled to smoke cancerous nicotine cigarettes or down liver damaging beer. Excuse me, but I cannot justifiably put coca-tea in the same categories as life destroying nicotine and alcohol.

Digestive problems? Drink coca tea!

Carbohydrate control? Drink coca tea!

More energy? Drink coca tea!

Altitude sickness? You guessed it… Drink coca tea!

Maybe employers should encourage their employees to drink coca tea, not punish them for it! It helps to improve a worker’s performance! It doesn’t negatively affect productivity like alcohol or cigarettes.

Have you ever heard of somebody that needed to take a “5 minute coca tea break?” I didn’t think so!

And what about the ever popular beverage “Coca-Cola?” It’s not a coincidence that “Coca” is a part of the iconic soft drink’s name. There are reports that a (cocaine free) coca base is still used as an ingredient by the company. Maybe it falls under the label of “proprietary blend” so the company can legally conceal the actual “secret ingredient.”

Drinking Coca-Cola, consuming beer or smoking cigarettes isn’t illegal...

And Neither is drinking Coca tea!

Ultimately it’s up to the employer to make the judgement call in cases where there is a “false positive” test result. Regardless if the company is located in a “Right to Work State” they walk a fine line when suspending or even firing innocent employees over inaccurate test results.

On the other hand, travelers and expats must also be aware of the repurcussions involved when drinking coca tea beverages or coca-based drinks, including energy drinks. A small bag of brewed coca tea can release as little as 4 mg of the cocaine alkaloid.

While a drug screening may show a minute presence of the cocaine alkaloid it does not prove the abuse of the narcotic. A lot more goes into the processing of cocaine than it does into coca-tea pouches.

I strongly believe that life is full of absolutes, but it’s the law and judgement that creates the gray lines and apparently for my husband’s employer that line of an employee legally consuming coca-tea is a blurred one.