growing it and importing it are illegal,
I presume possession is as well.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 17:36, 1 reply)

yeah it's illegal
Outside of this South American context, the laws of most countries do not make any distinction between the coca leaf and any other substance containing cocaine, so the possession of coca leaf (except for decocainized leaf) is de-facto prohibited. Coca leaves are specifically mentioned.

The prohibition of the use of the coca leaf and derived products (except for medical or scientific purposes) was established by the Schedule I listing of coca, coca leaves and the actual coca plant, in the 1961 List of Controlled Substances which was annexed to the U.N. Single Convention. Coca leaves are in the same listing category as heroin and cocaine.
www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showwiki.php?title=Legal_status_and_politics_of_coca

There's an odd twist now though, because this implies that anything derived from a coca leaf is illegal even if it's not got cocaine in it.

edit: Although then:
f. " Coca leaf ' means the leaf of the coca bush except a leaf from which all ecgonine, cocaine and any other ecgonine alkaloids have been removed
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 17:42, closed)

So....
to answer you question a bit, you CAN have coca leaf if it has no cocaine in? Like the sort coca cola would use? Meaning they are doing nothing illegal? Therefore voiding the whole scenario? I assume maybe coca cola pays some columbian ex cocaine makers to process the leaves before import maybe? Seems perfectly possible.
(robneymcplum spiced up his life on, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 19:06, closed)

no,
Stepan Company processes the leaves. They have a special exemption to do so.

My point is that the amount of leaves imported by Stepan is well in excess of the medical need, and that said exemption is entirely down to the Coca Cola's political clout. The only reason, it seems, that decocanised leaves are allowed is because of pressure from Coca Cola.

I'm not accusing Coca Cola of doing anything illegal. They're far too big and clever for that. They made it legal. But only for them and their suppliers.

As for the claimed discrepancy between legitimate need and actual amount imported, I'm still trying to get some definite figures on that.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 5 Dec 2011, 19:14, closed)