Cocaine comes from coca leaves. The plant grows wild across large areas of South America but especially in the mountainous areas of Columbia, Peru and Bolivia.

Early Uses

Native South Americans chewed coca leaves for various purposes. It gave protection against the affects of altitude sickness and was very commonly used in the Andes for strength, endurance and to combat hunger pangs.

It was used as a local anesthetic during trepanation (a popular operation since ancient times that involves drilling a hole in the skull, purportedly to reduce pressure on the brain).

When chewed with tobacco it was said to induce drunkenness to the point that early Spanish observers said that users ‘lost their wittes’.

Purified Cocaine

• The active ingredient was isolated in pure form in 1855 by a German chemist.
• In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century it was used as a stimulant by manual workers in the US.
• Polar explorers used it to help make long marches in freezing conditions.
• Cocaine’s most common medical use was in eye and nasal surgery where it produced numbness and reduced bleeding. Dentists used it as an anesthetic during fillings and extractions. It has been largely replaced by anesthetics like benzocaine and tetracaine because cocaine has unpredictable toxic effects on the heart.
• It was a common over the counter painkiller in the US until prohibition in 1914. Various wines and drinks including Coca Cola had cocaine added for the stimulant properties prior to this time.

Cocaine and the Law

In the early twentieth century the ‘great moral panic’ which led ultimately to prohibition of alcohol also led to prohibition of cocaine.

The 1914 Harrison Narcotics Tax Act outlawed the sale and distribution of cocaine in the United States but was rarely enforced. This was partly because it classified cocaine wrongly as a narcotic (like heroin) when in fact it is a stimulant.

It was only in 1970 that it became a controlled substance and was then vigorously suppressed by law enforcement agencies.

Modern Usage

The 1980’s was the peak period of cocaine use in the US. Its widespread popularity amongst well-to-do, single, young professionals who liked to socialize led to cocaine being glamorized as a party drug but it was (and still is) used across all social groups for many different reasons. Students abuse it as a stimulant to help with studying. It is said to increase sexual interest and pleasure.

Cocaine can be sniffed, inhaled (smoked) or injected.

The intense initial high fades away over a period of about 45 minutes. There is usually a strong desire to repeat the experience.

It is the second most popular recreational drug in the US, after marijuana.

Health Issues

• Cocaine's addictive qualities are widely asserted by the medical community but often denied by users. There is no doubt that it is a destructive drug for many and that psychological dependency, at the very least, can become a serious issue. AA type meetings in larger cities will always include a good number of cocaine users.
• Users describe euphoria, feel in control, empathic and on top of the world. Non-users frequently describe users as babbling, domineering, insensitive, reckless and often paranoid.
• Over use can induce states close to psychosis with severe agitation, erratic and violent behavior, profound anxiety, twitching, poor concentration, rapid shallow breathing, tremors, blurred vision, headaches, muscle spasms, chest pains, hallucinations, nausea, fever, convulsions and even death.
• Tachycardia (fast and erratic heart beat) and chest pain produced by cocaine use is often mistaken for a heart attack.
• Cocaine users are 24 times more likely to suffer a genuine heart attack than non-users according to a study of 4000 people by the Institute for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Boston. Users have heart attacks at a much younger age than non-users on average.
• The effect of cocaine on dopamine metabolism in the brain can mean that chronic users no longer feel any pleasure from normal activities without the use of the drug.
• The biotechnology company Xenova is developing a vaccine that is designed to prevent cocaine use being enjoyable. There have been controversial proposals for programs to inoculate all Americans in their early teens,

Crack

Crack cocaine was first produced in the 1990’s for the poorer, inner city market. A simple technique, using readily available chemicals, was found to produce crack from cocaine. The new product was highly addictive and thus a very attractive product for producers who quickly gained a captive market. The destructive effects of crack are well documented.

Production and Smuggling.

Cocaine cultivation is largely restricted to areas outside of governmental control, especially in Columbia where revolutionary guerillas and criminal gangs control large areas of mountainous and inaccessible territory. Bolivia is pursuing a policy of allowing traditional coca leaf and tea use (to combat altitude sickness and make physical labor easier) whilst trying to stamp out cocaine production.

Smuggling into the United States is a massive industry involving mules (lone travelers) small planes, boats and even submarines that can avoid coast guard radar and carry up to 250 million dollars worth of cocaine at a time.

The US market is estimated at around 80 billion dollars (street value) a year.