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Cocaine Fact File
2101/ Cocaine was the
first local anaesthetic; being used as such from about 1884
onwards.
2102/ Stephan Chemicals,
based in Chicago, is the company responsible for de-cocainising
coca leaves before they are made into coca-cola. It is estimated
that the 175,000 kilograms of coca leaves a year they use
would make about 1.75 tons of cocaine, worth around $200 million.
The 'new' coca-cola introduced in the US in the 1980s removed
coca altogether from the Coke recipe. Following the drinks
commercial flop 'Classic Coke' was swiftly re-introduced which
does make use of coca leaves.
2103/ There is archeological
evidence to show that coca leaves (which contain about 0.5
to 1% cocaine) have been chewed in South America were the
plant grows natively for over 2000 years.
2104/ Sigmund Freud was
an early user and extoller of the virtues of Cocaine. And
also unfortunately the person who kickstarted the idea that
Cocaine could be used as an effective treatment for morphine
addiction. (It can't)
2105/ The first mention
of the coca plant in English in a purely literary sense (as
opposed to biological) was in 1662 when Abraham Cowley published
a poem called 'The Legend of Coca'.
2106/ Cocaine as the
'active ingredient' of the coca plant was first established
in a thesis of 1859 by Fredrich Wohler, Head of the Chemistry
department in Gottingen University in Germany.
2107/ Cocaine took off
in use around 1865 with the introduction of a wine called
Mariani Wine which contained Cocaine. The entrepreneur behind
it, Angelo Mariani, had a knack for promotion, and by 1902
he had collected over 8000 letters of commendation extolling
the virtues of his product. Some of the many famous people
who endorsed it were Thomas Edison, Pope Leo XIII, and the
President of France at the time.
2108/ Coca-Cola contained
Coca from 1885 to 1903; when the drink was reformulated to
not contain the active ingredient.
2109/ From about 1885
until the early 20th century Cocaine was used in a whole host
of products, including toothpaste, chewing gum, and even cocaine
impregnated plasters. According to information collected in
1902, 92% of all cocaine sold in major cities in the United
States was in the form of an ingredient in tonics and potions
available from local pharmacies.
2110/ With the sudden
upsurge in demand for cocaine at the end of the 19th Century,
came an increased desire to supply it, and two American Pharmaceutical
companies, Merck and Parke Davis, jumped on the bandwagon
to cultivate the Coca Leaves in South America and find methods
to better produce it. This led to Henry Rusby developing the
chemical process of turning leaves into cocaine paste; which
made it much cheaper to ship rather then in the form of the
the raw Coca leaves.
2111/ Cocaine works in
a totally different way from narcotics such as morphine or
heroin. Heroin works on receptor sites in the brain which
are stimulated by the drug to produce pain-relieving and mood-enhancing
chemicals. Cocaine on the other hand works by stimulating
the central nervous system, and like alchohol, is processed
through the liver.
2112/ 'Crack Cocaine'
is still cocaine. It is simply a different chemical process
applied to cocaine powder that allows cocaine to be smokeable.
This means that the 'high' from Crack Cocaine is much stronger
and more immediate (taking about 8 seconds to reach the brain);
and also shorter lived then from the powder.
2113/ Experiments with
animals suggest that cocaine is perhaps the most powerful
drug of all in producing psychological dependence. Rats and
monkeys made dependent on cocaine will always strive hard
to get more. As one scientist has commented - "Cocaine-driven
humans will relegate all other drives and pleasures to a minor
role in their lives. If we were to design deliberately a chemical
that would lock people into perpetual usage, it would probably
resemble cocaine".
2114/ It was the Hamilton
Narcotic Act of 1914 that finally saw Cocaine made illegal
outside of use in a hospital in the US. This came on the back
of a drift away from medical use of cocaine to almost total
recreational use; and increasing cases of psychological dependency
on the effects the drug could produce. In the UK the newspapers
during the First World War wrote articles about 'drug-crazed
soldiers', and an amendment to a bill was passed in 1916 which
effectively made possesion of cocaine for any but medical
personnel a crime.
2115/ Since the ban on
cocaine right up until the 1950s, cocaine was prohibitively
expensive for most people, and so use dropped off dramatically.
For example in the US in 1938 seizures of cocaine amounted
to 417 grams. Which was less than 1 percent of the total amount
of heroin seized that year.
2116/ Cocaine use rocketed
in the 1960s. Three elements are often credited for explaining
this. Firstly, the adoption into popular culture through use
by bands, and films such as 'Easy Rider' in 1969. Secondly,
that in the US the government was increasingly cracking down
on amphetamines. Speed was bad the public were told, and hence
users may have adopted a 'new' drug. And thirdly, South American
countries cranked up their production of the drug at around
this time.
2117/ Peru is the largest
producer of coca paste and leaf. Colombia is probably the
largest producer of the finished product - cocaine.
2118/ By 1978 it was
estimated that 85 percent of all the cocaine consumed in the
USA came from Colombia, and the drug represented $4 billion
a year in trade to Colombia. Today it is estimated that the
300 or so drug gangs in Colombia are responsible for moving
90 percent of America's cocaine and 70 percent of its heroin;
with the total world illicit drug market estimated at over
$60 billion and possibly as much as $400 billion per year
(figures vary widely due to the difficult nature of measuring
an illegal trade).
2119/ In October 1999,
it was announced that more than 99 percent of bank notes showed
traces of cocaine in the UK - mainly through cross exposure
in cashpoints, tills etc to the 5 percent of notes that had
been used directly to snort the drug.
2120/ A common way of
laundering money in Colombia in the 1980s was through the
acquisition of football teams. Players could be paid large
sums in cash, and when they were bought and sold to foreign
teams the money invested was essentially washed clean. It
is estimated that $35 million was moved abroad by the Colombian
Cartels using this method between 1983 and 1988.
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