Coca-Cola once contained cocaine; Coca-Sek, a soft drink being marketed by a Colombian indian tribe, still does -- perhaps making it the ultimate "energy drink."

The Los Angeles Times reported April 12 that Coca-Sek is made of syrup produced by boiling coca leaves and marketed by the Nasa tribe. The tribe is bottling the drink in a local village but hopes to market the product nationally.

Mainstream energy drinks like Gatorade and Red Bull are already popular in Colombia. Nasa council leader Gelmis Chate said that while cocaine is a foreign product of the white man, coca is a sacred and plentiful resource for his people. Chewing coca leaves is an ancient custom in the mountains of Colombia.

The emergence of Coca-Sek as a possible mass-consumer product is raising tensions in Colombia, as well as questions about the limits of native sovereignty.

But coca is becoming more acceptable across South America: Bolivia recently elected coca farmer Evo Morales president, and Morales is trying to convince the U.N. that the plant is not poisonous and can be used for a number of agricultural products, A state company in Peru has been set up to market coca products.

The Nasa tribe actually pays coca farmers more per pound for coca leaves to make Coca-Sek than drug dealers pay to make cocaine. Coca-Sek manager David Curtidor says the drink can be seen as a way to fight drug trafficking. "Each leaf that goes to making the drink is one leaf less for the narcos," he said.

"The world's mind is closed to the good uses of the leaf," Nasa leader Chate said. "We're trying to show that we can make value-added products that aren't a danger to anyone."