Cocaine - History, Introduction To The West, Coca-cola, Early Drug Laws, After The 1960s
crack effects social physical
Cocaine is a colorless or white narcotic crystalline alkaloid derived from the leaves of the South American coca plant—Erythroxylum coca. Aside from its use as a local anesthetic, which has largely been supplanted by safer drugs, its medical applications failed to live up to the hopes of physicians and chemists of the late nineteenth century. They administered cocaine to themselves and others in the hope that it would be a cure-all wonder drug. After about two decades of wide use in prescription and patented medicine, the harmful effects of cocaine became manifest, and its use as a drug in medical practice was eventually banned.
It subsequently became an illegal drug used for its mood-altering effects, which include euphoria and bursts of short-lived physical energy. The "high" produced by cocaine lasts for a short time. The "crash" that follows leaves the user in need of another "fix" to get back to the former high. But each encounter produces diminished highs, so that increasing doses are required to recapture the initial experience. The physical and social consequences of cocaine addiction are devastating both to the individual and society. It leads to impoverishment and the destruction of the individual's health. When young people begin to use cocaine, communities begin to feel the effects of increased crime, violence, and social decay.
In the late 1970s cocaine was "snorted," or sniffed through the nose, in its crystalline form, then known as "snow." Because of its high cost, the number of users was limited. In order to get a faster and stronger high, cocaine was also taken by injection with a hypodermic needle. By the 1980s a cheaper version of pure cocaine made its appearance on the illegal market in the form of "crack," which is smoked, primarily in the "crack houses" where it is produced. In the form of crack, cocaine has reached a larger population, making it one of the chief drug problems of the present.
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Coca plants, which are the source for cocaine, are indigenous to Central and South America. The name of the plant is derived from the Inca word Kuka. Archaeological evidence points to the use of coca plants in South America as early as seven thousand years ago. They were used for many centuries by the Incas as part of their religious ceremonies. To help the dead in the afterworld, mounds of stored…
The main alkaloid in the leaves of the coca plant was extracted in 1859 by Albert Niemann, a German scientist, who gave it the name cocaine. Reports soon followed of therapeutic benefits of cocaine in the treatment of a number of physical and mental disorders. These reports also praised cocaine for being a highly effective stimulant, able to conquer the most severe cases of fatigue. Sigmund Freud,…
From all the nineteenth-century hopes for the possible medical uses of cocaine, the only practical application that held up was its use as a local anesthetic. All the other efforts to prove that cocaine was a wonder drug were dismal failures in light of the powerful addictive effects of the drug. By the early twentieth century, it had become clear that cocaine posed a serious hazard to any user. I…
By the late 1970s, cocaine addiction in the United States had reached epidemic proportions. In the mid-1980s people started smoking cocaine after "freebasing" it, that is, dissolving the cocaine alkaloid from its white powder base to create a smokable form of pure cocaine. Ether is used to remove the hydrochloride base, which does not burn. The smoked cocaine goes straight into the b…
Used as a local anesthetic, cocaine constricts the blood vessels, thereby slowing down blood circulation. It also reduces the sensitivity of nerve endings, especially in the skin, eyes, and areas of the mouth. Because cocaine is a stimulant, it increases the heart and pulse rate and raises blood pressure, causing alertness, insomnia, loss of appetite, and dilated pupils. Several theories have been…
Breaking a cocaine dependency is difficult, and treatment is costly and prolonged, involving treatment centers and support groups. Since addiction is a chronic disorder, the detoxification process is just the first step, and there is no final cure. Remissions can be expected, and the goal of treatment may have to be the control and reduction of use and dependency. Prevention efforts in the United …
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