Andrew Weil

Andrew Weil is an integrative medicine physician, author, and founder of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, where his work focuses on combining conventional medicine with evidence-based complementary health approaches.

Coca’s Defenders Say Prohibition Mistook a Medicinal Leaf for Cocaine

In a Tim Ferriss Show conversation, integrative medicine physician Andrew Weil and anthropologist Wade Davis argue that coca leaf has been wrongly collapsed into cocaine in medicine, law and public understanding. Weil presents coca as a case study in the difference between whole plants and isolated compounds, with suggestive but under-researched therapeutic uses; Davis argues its prohibition reflects a racially charged campaign against Indigenous culture as much as concern over cocaine trafficking. Both make the case for renewed research, legal reconsideration and a licit market for the leaf.

Tim FerrissJun 25, 202622 min read