The recent discussion in these pages of the possibility of a relationship between coca chewing and high-altitude stress (Fuchs 1978, Bolton1979, Burchard1980) has concentrated exclusively on the medical and pharmacological aspects of the question. The central assumption - that the coca habit is intimately connected with the stresses of life in the high Andes - has never been challenged.We shall argue here that this assumption is unjustified. Ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence indicates that, far from being purely a high-altitude phenomenon, coca use was widespread at all altitudes before the European conquest.This being so,the physiological benefits from coca chewing should be of a general nature,rather than altitude-specific. In corroboration, we cite pharmacological data which demonstrate that coca serves as a general stimulant rather than as a special-purpose drug.