Scientific distinctions between coca and cocaine support policy reform Ongoing review of international drug policy should correct long-standing, misguided, and harmful conflation

15 October 2025

By Dawson M. White, Ricardo Soberón Garrido, Caroline S. Conzelman, Wade Davis, Claude Guislain, Anthony Henman, Orlando Adolfo Jara-Muñoz, Martin Jelsma, Susana Mejía, Daniel Montoya-Cataño, Oscar Alejandro Pérez-Escobar, David Alfonso Restrepo, Kenny Alejandra Saavedra-Rojas, and Imikita Tariiru.

Published in Science on 15 October 2025, this peer-reviewed article examines the pharmacological, cultural, and policy distinctions between coca leaf and cocaine. The authors argue that these differences support evidence-based reform of international drug control frameworks and correction of long-standing misclassifications.

Read the article in Science (Open access for two weeks).

Author copy available here on Harvard DASH.

Watch the presentation by Dawson White at the WHO-ECDD hearing on 20 October 2025