International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 2, Winter 2018/Spring 2019 | Page 7

The French Approach to Coca
International Journal on Criminology
The earliest documentary evidence regarding harmful substances in France
is a royal edict of August 31, 1682. Its aim was to prevent poisoning by
arsenic. 5 Next came a decree issued by the Paris police, dated July 19-22,
1791, Article 9. 6 To this was then added the law of 21 Germinal, Year XI (April 11,
1803), paragraphs 34 and 35: “Poisonous substances must be held by pharmacists
and épiciers [grocers/food merchants] in secure places.” 7 Some years later came
the law of July 19, 1845, concerning the sale of toxic substances. Such substances
were categorized by royal the decree of October 29, 1846 in a single table containing
most notably arsenic, opium, and morphine. Coca leaves are not mentioned in
all these instances, despite being known in Europe since at least 1565 through the
work of Nicolás Monardes. 8
In 1909, with the encouragement of President Theodore Roosevelt, the thirteen
countries brought together at the Shanghai Conference adopted a series of
measures against opium trafficking. Coca leaves were not mentioned. 9 In 1912,
the Second Hague Convention on opium saw no change on the question of coca
leaves. On June 4, 1913, Bolivia signed the Hague treaty despite having no connection
to the opium trade; neither was the country producing any cocaine at this
time, legal or otherwise. The first international controls on cocaine were, in fact,
those of the Harrison Act (1914) in the United States, which ended the previously
legal use of cocaine in the country, except for medical purposes. 10 Throughout
this time, coca leaves were simply forgotten. In France, the law of July 12, 1916
addressed the importation, trade, possession, and use of toxic substances such as
opium, morphine, and cocaine, but made no mention of coca leaves.
Only with the new opium directive of the International Opium Convention
at Geneva (1925) are coca leaves addressed as a matter of prime importance.
5 Articles 7 and 8, produced in response to a number of supposed murders by poisoning such as the
Marquise de Brinvilliers affair, the La Voisin affair, the La Vigoureux case, and so forth; this also
explains the existence of a Chambre Ardente (special tribunal) at Versailles, which sat from 1679 to
1682.
6 “Concerning places of general public intercourse, such as cafés, cabarets, shops and others, the officers
of the police force may enter at any time, in order to investigate disorder and the infringement
of regulations, or to verify weights and measures and the ownership of gold and silver, and the
sound condition of foods and medicines.” [Translator’s note: In the absence of a published version
in English, this wording is mine.]
7 The author of these articles was a Councilor of State named Antoine-François Fourcroy.
8 A doctor living by the Guadalquivir River in Seville, Spain, wrote of the botanical properties of the
coca plant. His work was translated into Latin (1574), Italian (1576), English (1577) and spread
knowledge of the plant across Europe.
9 In 1906, Angelo Mariani had begun to send the first “decocainized” coca leaves to the United States.
He had been marketing this product in Europe since 1899.
10 In 1922, Congress prohibited all importation of coca leaves and cocaine into the United States. It
was not until 1970 that the Harrison Act was replaced by the Controlled Substances Act.
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