A Brief History of Cocaine

No comprehensive discussion of cocaine use in our country would be complete without an in-depth analysis of its history. Cocaine first became a problem in the last decades of the 1800s and lasted through the 1920s. It re-emerged as an issue in the 1970s and wreaked havoc on American lives through the 80s. At the same time, cocaine is still the drug of choice in many circles among drug addicts. Cocaine withdrawal is also very difficult to manage in its recovery treatment.

Although many of us joke about the fact that cocaine was actually an ingredient in the original version of Coca-Cola, back then, cocaine was supposedly intended for purely medicinal purposes. The substance had been isolated from the coca leaf by a scientist in Europe. Vin Mariani, the byproduct of coca leaves soaked in wine, was the original coca drink and inspired American researchers to explore additional uses of the coca leaf. The concoction was also used by opera singers throughout Europe to treat sore throats; these same singers occasionally snorted cocaine to reduce nasal and sinus swelling.

Doctors state that cocaine can be used to treat a variety of mental illnesses, in addition to serving as a stimulant. Many feel that the delicate conditions suffered by women, such as generalized female hysterics, could be adequately controlled by the coca elixir.  Physicians say that the cocaine could be used as a local anesthetic, enabling advances in many times of surgeries that are impossible due to the inability to control pain.

Unfortunately, doctors enamor with cocaine, not unlike what happens today, recommended the substance enthusiastically and without reservation and, in many instances, being ignorant of the fact that it was highly addictive. Some immoral doctors even went so far as to deny that cocaine was addictive at all. By the time the addictive properties were widely publicized, the damage had been done, and lives had been destroyed.

In stark contrast to the cocaine epidemic that would come a century later, however, those addicted to it were not initially blamed for their addiction, nor were the doctors who prescribed it. Instead, fingers were pointed to the pioneers who had touted the drug as non-habit forming. This perpetuated the problem by offering little in the way of motivation to stop taking or prescribing it.

In the 1880s, cocaine could be manufactured and sold by practically everyone, and it eventually became popular among the less savory crowds. It was cheap and widely available. Once, people, especially prostitutes, started both snorting and injecting it intravenously. Cocaine lost its appeal as the new wonder drug. By the turn of the century, cocaine and its users were vilified in the national press and were associated with crime and other forms of depravity.

The sale and use of cocaine came under regulation by every state government and, eventually, was controlled on the federal level under the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1915. Cocaine really is a useful substance and can still be a good tool in the physician’s arsenal, much like morphine and other narcotics, if it is properly understood and regulated. Unfortunately, the proliferation of cocaine abuse during the early 1900s prevented any such measured and rational approach to the utilization of it, and such deeply ingrained attitudes are almost impossible to overturn.