THE PRESENT DISTRIBUTION OF 
NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS AMONGST 
THE INDIAN TRIBES OF COLOMBIA 
BY 
Nesror Uscarecut M.’ 
RECENT extensive and intensive interest in narcotic and 
stimulant plants on the part of medical and pharmacolo- 
gical investigators has focused attention on the need of 
knowing more about these plants from the botanical and 
anthropological points of view. During the past twenty 
years or so, significant strides have been made in deter- 
mining the correct botanical sources of plant narcotics 
and stimulants. Very little has been done, however, to- 
ward bringing into some semblance of order the vast 
amount of information on their distribution, preparation, 
use and social significance, which is scattered here and 
there throughout ethnological literature and the writings 
of travellers. 
Forasmuch as Colombia represents one of the regions 
of the world where the native population has developed 
to its highest degree the use of plants which act on the 
central nervous system as intoxicants or stimulants, I 
propose here to present a preliminary and very much 
abbreviated survey of the distribution of the use of these 
plants amongst the Indians of this country. 
"Instituto Colombiano de Antropologia, Bogota, Colombia. 
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