The History of Cocaine
Coca
Cocaine is a naturally occurring stimulant drug found in the leaves of the coca plant, Erythroxylon coca. Although cocaine was not extracted from the coca leaf until the mid-19th century, archaeologists have discovered coca leaves at Peruvian grave sites dating from approximately 500 A.D., along with other items considered necessities for the afterlife. Thus, although current practices of cocaine use are relatively recent by historical standards, coca leaves have been chewed for at least 15 centuries. Coca leaves have been used in the past for a variety of religious, medicinal, and work-related reasons. They have also been the subject of a great deal of folklore that the leaf was of divine origin, and its use was therefore reserved as an herb provided for members of the upper classes. One Incan myth described coca as an herb provided by the god Inti to allow the Incas to endure their difficult environmental conditions without suffering from hunger or thirst. Another myth alleged that the plant grew from the remains of a beautiful woman who had been executed for adultery, cut in half, and buried. Themes of seductiveness and danger have thus been associated with cocaine for well over a millennium.
After conquering the Incas in the 16th century, the Spanish were initially opposed to cocoa use because they saw worship of the drug as a barrier to religious conversion. However, the conquistadors also recognized that the leaves energized the Indians and enabled them to work long, tedious hours in gold and silver mines with little need for food or sleep. Financial considerations overcame their religious objections, and in 1569 Philip II of Spain declared the coca leaf essential to the health of the Indian. It was not long thereafter that the Spaniards began paying the Indians with being able to treat a variety of medical disorders, including such diverse conditions as venereal diseases, headaches, asthma, rheumatism, and toothaches.
Sigmund Freud
Despite the imprimatur of the Spainards who brought coca leaves back to Europe, there was very little enthusiasm among the Europeans for coca until 1855, when a German chemist named Gaedacke was able to extract the active ingredient of the coca leaf, which he named erythroxyline. In 1859, another German, Albert Niemann, also isolated the compound and renamed it cocaine. This discovery sparked a flourish of experimentation with the compound, which peaked around the turn of the century Perhaps the most notable of the drug’s champions was Sigmund Freud, who performed a great deal of research on the drug, based both on personal experience and on the observation of others. In July 1884, Freud published his landmark paper entitled, “On Coca.” In this work, he rhapsodized about the effects of cocaine:
The psychic effect of cocaine consists of exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which does not differ in any way from the normal euphoria of a healthy person… One senses an increase of self-control and feels more vigorous and more capable of work; on the other hand, if one works, one misses the heightening of the mental powers which alcohol, tea, or coffee induces. One is simply normal, and soon finds it difficult to believe that one is under the influence of any drug at all… Long lasting intensive mental or physical work can be performed without fatigue; it is as though the need for food and sleep, which otherwise makes itself felt peremptorily at certain times of the day, were completely banished.
Freud also noted the drug’s ability to relieve the pain and thus paved the way for the discovery of cocaine as the first local anesthetic. He also claimed that cocaine might prove useful as a stimulant and as as an aphrodisiac, as well as in the treatment of depression, gastrointestinal disturbances, wasting diseases, alcoholism, morphine addiction, and asthma. None of these predictions was supported by scientific research, however, and Freud was accused of irresponsibility by much of the scientific community because of his enthusiasm for cocaine. When Freud used the drug to treat a colleague for morphine addiction, he was dismayed to find that his patient developed a similar severe dependence on cocaine. This and other developments led Freud to eventually modify his positive feelings about cocaine.
Freud was not the only person in the late 19th century to embrace this new compound. A Corsican chemist named Angelo Mariani understood the power of this newly discovered drug, and Mariani produced a mixture of coca leaves and wine, which he called “Vin Mariani.” This tonic was phenomenally successful: among those who endorsed it were kings, queens, two popes, and such notable figures as Thomas Edison, H. G. Wells, and Jules Verne.
In 1886, an American chemist named John Syth Pemberton created a new patent medicine that was advertised as “a valuable Brain tonic and cure for all nervous addictions – SICK HEADACHE, NEURALGIA, HYSTERIA, MELANCHOLY, etc.” This patent medicine was later promoted as a soft drink with cocaine as its major ingredient. Thus Coca Cola was born. Americans, as well as Europeans, were discovering around the turn of the century what South American Indians had known for hundreds of years: that the coca leaf could energize them, lift them up, and make them feel good. Although caffeine has since been substituted for cocaine as the active ingredient in Coca Cola, decocainized coca leaves are still included as part of the beverage’s “natural flavors.”
Sherlock Holmes
Cocaine use was also popularized in the turn-of-the-century literature; no less a figure than Sherlock Holmes injected the drug regularly. Eventually, however, in the early part of the 20th century, this unrestrained enthusiasm for cocaine began to be tempered by increasing evidence of the drug’s addictive properties. In addition, broader social factors coincided to dampen this fascination with cocaine. For example, certain “muckraking” journalists began to attack manufacturers of patent medicines because the reporters felt that the outlandish claims made for these tonics represented attempts to dupe the general public. This effort was joined by American physicians, who were becoming an increasingly organized and professional group. In addition, popular newspapers wrote about the relationship between cocaine and criminal behavior; this took a decidedly racist tone, resulting in reports of murders by “crazed (black) cocaine takers” and “attacks upon white women of the South… [as] the direct result of [the] coke-crazed negro brain.”
This combination of events led to restrictions on cocaine under the Federal Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914. The Act was a paradoxical piece of legislation because it incorrectly classified cocaine as a narcotic, when in fact the drug is a stimulant. In addition, 46 of the 48 states at that time passed similar legislation to curb cocaine use, whereas only 29 states had similar laws concerning true narcotic (now termed opioid) drugs. From 1914 until the early 1970s, cocaine use “went underground.” Use was largely confined to the fast-and-loose movie stars, jazz musicians, and wealthy thrill seekers. However, it was not used frequently by other members of the general public. Its illegal status made its price tag quite high, and a reasonable substitute in the form of amphetamine was available cheaply and legally, by prescription.
It is difficult to explain the overwhelming resurgence of cocaine use in this country beginning in the early 1970s. A number of factors, however, converged to change the drug-taking habits of America. First, an increasing segment of America had grown up using drugs. The use of marijuana and hallucinogens in the 1960s by a significant number of young Americans made many of them unafraid of the legal and potential medical consequences of so-called soft drug use. Unfortunately, cocaine had developed a reputation as being a “soft” and “safe” drug: nonaddicting, not dangerous, and short-acting: the perfect social drug. It became the drug of the rich and powerful. Rock musicians sang its praises. Popular films portrayed cocaine as a glamorous, harmless plaything. Newspapers publicized arrests of film stars and sports celebrities who were apprehended for possession of the drug. Cocaine developed a mystique around it. Amphetamine, meanwhile, had acquired a bad reputation in the 1960s; the phrase “speed kills” had become well known among members of the drug culture. Prescriptions for amphetamine became increasingly regulated. A segment of American society was thus looking for a new stimulant drug.
At the same time, new government efforts restricted the importation of marijuana from Mexico and opioids from the Far East. As a result, drug dealers whose business in marijuana and opioids was being impeded by law enforcement efforts began diverting their focus to the cocaine trade instead.
The substitution of cocaine for amphetamine as the stimulant of choice in America is a rather ironic one, because a study by a group of researchers from the University of Chicago found that experienced cocaine users were unable to distinguish between the effects of cocaine and amphetamine when alternately administered both drugs intravenously without being told which was which. Other experiments have shown that cocaine users have difficulty distinguishing between cocaine and intravenous lidocaine (Xylocaine) under similar conditions. What then, are cocaine users paying for? It appears to be more than just the pharmacological effect of the drug. Cocaine use offers a sense of power and prestige that is not present with any other drug. However, this is an illusory experience, because even people with power and prestige can easily lose control of their lives as the result of using this powerful and humbling drug.
Cocaine Addiction and Crack Cocaine Addiction Treatment
If you are addicted to cocaine or crack cocaine, please call us to talk to one of our clinical nurse specialists on addiction treatment. Our phone number is: 0207 100 7260 and all our calls are kept confidential.
