Maybe they could
But presumably they would lose the characteristic flavour. You said yourself that only they can use the coca leaves - and there's no reason to believe that all the leaves are turned into cocaine after the flavourings have been extracted. Most will probably be thrown away or destroyed rather than go to the extra effort of extracting the cocaine.
( MatJ LOOK, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 17:35, 2 replies)

And I would assume
The process of removing the flavourings, I dont know how but assume its the same as how you get essential oile etc for perfumes and fragrances, would destroy traces of cocaine or make the leaves unusable.
(robneymcplum spiced up his life on, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 17:37, closed)

no official source is saying that any of it is destroyed.
they are saying it is for medicinal use.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 17:37, closed)

For the fourth time
I'm not saying any cocaine is destroyed. I'm saying that it is never refined in the first place, because the leaves it would have been refined from are destroyed.

Cocaine and coca leaves are not the same thing.

Edit: You seem to be assuming that they extract all the cocaine that it's possible to extract, and I'm saying that they almost certainly don't, especially as they have absolutely no need to.
( MatJ LOOK, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 17:57, closed)

Coca leaves are just as illegal as cocaine.
Coca leaves are illegal to cultivate, to import and to process. They're apparently not illegal after they've been decocanised, so the Coca Cola company at least keeps its hands clean, but how they justify producing the decocanised leaves other than as a byproduct of medical cocaine production, I still can't yet quite fathom. The pharmaceutical company Stepan has an exemption from the DEA (the only company that has such an exemption) for the production of medical cocaine.

I know why it is that way though, the Coca Cola company has the US Government by the throat, that's what worries me. Decocanised coca leaves are not used as a flavouring for anything else at all outside of South America.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 18:06, closed)

I'm trying to understand where you're coming from.
Correct me if I'm wrong. What I think you're suggesting happens are these steps, in this order:

1. Import coca leaves
2. Process all coca leaves to produce medical cocaine
3. Use decocanised leaves to produce flavourings
4. As the demand for flavourings is far higher than the demand for medical cocaine, where does the rest of the cocaine go?

If that's what you're thinking then yes, I can see the problem. However, if the steps are:

1. Import leaves
2. Process all leaves to create flavourings
3. Re-process some (say 20%) of the leaves to create medicinal cocaine in amounts appropriate to world demand
4. Destroy all unnecessary leaves

Then I don't see the problem. The US government gets its medical cocaine (but no more than it needs) and coca cola get their flavourings. Both processes end up with the leaves either destroyed or in a legal form, but to me the second makes far more sense than the first.

Edit: Especially as an operation of this sort would be subject to massive public and federal scrutiny, I think that you would have to implicate large sections of the government in any plausible smuggling link. I just can't see that the benefits would outweigh the risks.
( MatJ LOOK, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 18:15, closed)

My problem is that I dont see why any company would get an exemption
for the import or use of a plant that the US Government is quite keen to entirely eradicate just so that one particular manufacturer can make soft drinks out of it.

And I don't think big business in America is particularly scrutinised at all.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 18:22, closed)

re your edit:
I'm suggesting that if they didn't need that much coca for their medical product needs, then there is no justification for them to import that much coca. I'm suggesting that the medical market is the only legitimate use of the stuff, but that rather than running the business for the medicine and selling flavourings as a sideline, the opposite seems to be the case, and that the only reason they can get away with it is because of the influence that big businesses such as the Coca Cola company have other the legal system.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 18:19, closed)

I actually agree with this
I never said I thought it was a good situation - what I said was that there is no good reason to posit a cocaine selling/smuggling operation from the known facts. It will be interesting to see what will happen when the medicinal cocaine market dwindles to an insignificant amount.
( MatJ LOOK, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 18:30, closed)

OK, I shouldn't claim you suggested that, because you didn't.
I should have said that there is no reason to assume an oversupply of cocaine.
( MatJ LOOK, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 18:34, closed)

well perhaps,
although I suspect it's not called the Whitehouse for no reason...
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 18:49, closed)

Indeed
Bill Clinton was terrible for not cleaning up after himself.
( MatJ LOOK, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 18:56, closed)