America’s Insatiable Appetite for Cocaine Essay

Over three thousand years before the Jesus Christ was born, ancient Incas in the Andes chewed coca leaves to get their hearts going so it would speed up their breathing to counter the effects of living in the mountains thin air. Cocaine was first taken out of coca leaves in 1859 by a German chemist known as Albert Niemann. In the 1880s is when it started to be popular in the medical community. An Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, promoted the drug as a tonic to cure depression and sexual impotence, as he used himself. Freud prescribed to close friends and loved ones even though the drug made one suffer over paranoid hallucinations and one even dying because of high of the dosage was prescribed to him. As the following years approached cocaine became very popular in the film industry, pro-cocaine coming out of Hollywood caught the attention of millions. Cocaine in society rapidly increased and the dangers of the drug gradually became more evident as the drug was used. In 1905 it was very common to snort cocaine and within five

Crack cocaine has been popular since the 1970s and mid 1980s. Crack cocaine is not a new drug; this drug is obtained from coca plant which grows mainly in South America. For many years, the native South American Indians chewed its leaves to develop strength and increased energy. By the 1800s, the cocaine was secluded from its leaves and used as a medicinal drug. By the late 1800s, it was used as an anesthetic and to avert surgical hemorrhage. The next century, people recognized crack cocaine an addictive narcotic and its non-medical use of the drug was ended by the Harrison Narcotics Act in 1914 (“How crack cocaine works?”).

It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that a PhD student in Germany created an isolated cocaine alkaloid that would be used as the first anesthetic. Albert Niemann, the student who perfected cocaine purification process, noted many properties of drug. One journal esteemed its bitter taste and temporary numbness the pharmaceutical caused. By the late 1800s, the drug’s known applications became increasingly popular. Cocaine became the go-to cure for everything from epidurals to tooth aches. When combined with alcohol, the resulting cocaethylene generated a potent concoction with potent effects, making cocaine

Coca-Cola- In May 1886 John Pemberton invented a drink, Coca-Cola, by accidentally stumbling on the right combination of ingredients while trying to devise a cure for headaches. Pemberton was an experienced maker of patient medicines, which were hugely popular in America in the late nineteenth century. The name was coined by one of Pemberton’s business associates, Frank Robinson. He also contributed to the promotion of the drink by sending out tickets for free samples and putting up posters and banners that read “Drink Coca-Cola, 5c.” Robinson also developed the famous logo for Coca-Cola, which appeared in newspaper

Cocaine had slowly risen into American Popular Culture, starting with an appeal to the elite class and ending with the Harrison Act of 1914. Employers encouraged the use of the coca leaf among their workers to increase productivity and decrease fatigue. Early physicians would prescribe cocaine to treat everything from morphine addiction to the common cold. Cocaine became a common ingredient in consumer goods. Marketers raved about the amazing effects of cocaine in their advertisements. Early historical figures, including Thomas Edison and Pope Leo XIII, endorsed French coca wine. It was difficult to escape the grasp of cocaine’s spreading popularity.

The commodity chain of coca and cocaine began with the extraction of alkaloidal cocaine from the dried Andean coca leaf. This discovery by German doctoral student Albert Niemann would soon transform cocaine into a world drug commodity. Initially, cocaine was essential as a high-value medical commodity. Medical uses of cocaine included treatment of opiate addiction, hay fever, asthma, or other respiratory ailments. Cocaine’s greatest medical impact in the United States was as a local anesthetic during surgery. In Europe, cocaine’s commodity chain was defined by the coca elixir Vin Mariani developed by Corsican physician and chemist Angelo Mariani. Cultivated by Peruvian and Bolivian peasants living in the Andean Mountains, the coca leaf would be dried and shipped to the United States or Europe for refining. Due to the herb’s

One of the most detrimental and addictive narcotics in the world today is cocaine. Cocaine dates back as early as 3000 BC. Ancient Incas used the coca leaves to counter the effects of living in thin mountain air. Native Peruvians in the 1500’s chewed the plant strictly for religious ceremonies. Andean Indians are believed to chew the leaves of the coca plant to increase their energy for work while decreasing their hunger and pain. It wasn’t until 1859 when a German chemist Albert Niemann successfully extracted the narcotic from the coca leaf. In the 1880’s, it was freely prescribed by physicians for “maladies as exhaustion, depression, and morphine addiction and was available in many patent medicines” (“Cocaine”), until users and doctors began to realize its dangers and side effects. While it was not fully understood at the time, cocaine has many devastating and lasting effects on the user.

Cocaine usage is not as popular today as it was back in the 1900s but it continues to be abused as it was then. The drug has become addictive to those that used the drug intravenously, and free base (smoking crack). It has been said that individuals who try cocaine by inhaling, injecting, snorting would become addicted by using it for the first time. The individuals try to capture the pleasure or that high he/she first got when using the drug, the psychological effects of cocaine, addiction and dependence reports “only about 10 to 15% of those who initially try cocaine intranasally become abusers” (Gawin, 1991, p.1584).

One of the most common drugs use across the nation is Cocaine. Cocaine is classified as a stimulant, which is a group of drugs that cause short-term increase in the mental or physical state. Cocaine has a rich, long history dated back hundreds of years. The native people of South America first used it; they used to chew on it. The natives introduced this drug to the Spaniards when they landed on the continent. This lead to the research of Coca leaves a few hundred years later in Europe. Scientists sought o isolate and name the compound. After it was isolated, it was used as an anesthetic and other medical purposes for a couple of years. It was a useful anesthetic for eye and nasal surgery. However, today, it has very limited anesthetic use.

Cocaine is one of the worst drugs because it causes respiratory illness and kills mucus

because it can relax your body. Cocaine was first used in Native Peruvian to regions events. In

In this paper the many physical and psychological effects of Cocaine use will be presented to the reader. The reader will be able to see the rough timeline of Cocaine use and how it has evolved into the narcotic that is seen today. It will be clear to see just how much the theories on the drug has changed throughout history as a one point Sigmund Freud himself promoted the drug as healthy and could see no fault within its effects (UXL Encyclopedia of Science, 2015). In today’s world it is clear that cocaine is in fact dangerous and it is up to the reader to decide whether the physical effects or psychological effects are more drastic.

The short-term effects of cocaine use are constricted blood vessels, dilated pupils, increased body temperature, increased heart rate, and increased blood pressure. Large amounts of cocaine may increase the users high but can result in erratic and violent behavior. There are some cocaine users report feelings of irritability, restlessness, anxiety, paranoia, and panic. Users may also experience tremors and muscle twitches. The most common symptoms are cardiovascular effects, including disturbances the rhythm of your heart and heart attacks; neurological effects, including seizures, strokes, coma, and headaches; and gastrointestinal complications, including nausea and abdominal pain. On rare occasions, death can occur on the first use of

If you do believe this than you are correct, Cocaine was in Coca Cola! It was in it from 1886 through 1929, but at the time no one knew if it was bad or good. It was used as medicine at the time. From 1900 to 1929 people's opinion about cocaine, but the coke company continued to put it in because it helped keep its flavor and trademark. The main reason that cocaine was in coke was because it was a market strategy to make more money, they stopped putting cocaine in coke on 1929.

John Stith Pemberton, a pharmacist and “cash-strapped morphine addict,” created Coca-Cola in 1886. He used a French wine called Vin Mariani as his product to replicate. Coca-Cola was different because it was water-based, not wine-based, and included kola nut, caffeine, coca leaf extract, and sugar. It was originally sold as a medicine, a “brain tonic” that “Cures Morphine and Opium Habits and Desire for Intoxicants.” Later broke and ill from his stomach problems and morphine addiction, Pemberton sold the patent to Coca-Cola to Asa Candler, who later officially created The Coca-Cola Company.