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COCAIN

HISTORY

For more than ten thousand years, the indigenous peoples of South America have chewed the leaves of the Erythroxylon coca plant, a plant that contains vital nutrients, as well as numerous alkaloids, including cocaine.

Multiple archaeological evidences for the chewing of coca plant leaves date back to at least the 6th century BC and the subsequent Inca period, based on mummies found with:

Initially, coca chewing may have been restricted to the eastern Andes, before its introduction to the Incas.

When the plant was considered of divine origin, its cultivation by the rule of Topa Inca (1471-1493) became subject to a state monopoly and its use was restricted to nobles and some less favored classes (court orators, couriers, favored public workers, and the army).

When the Inca empire fell, coca leaves became more widely available.

Philip II of Spain issued a decree recognizing the drug as essential for the well-being of the Andean Indians, but calling on missionaries to end its religious use. The Spaniards declared the practice of chewing coca leaves to be the work of the devil. After discovering that the locals' claims that coca leaves gave them strength and energy, they legalized and taxed the use of the leaves, taking 10% of the value of each crop.

It is believed that the Spaniards effectively encouraged the use of the coca plant by the majority of the population to increase their work production and tolerance for hunger, but it is not clear if this was intentionally planned.

In 1569, Nicolás Monardes described the practice of local people chewing a mixture of tobacco plant leaves and coca plant leaves to induce "great pleasure":

"When they wanted to stretch themselves and go out of judgment they chewed a mixture of tobacco plant leaves and coca plant leaves, which made them walk as if they were in a dream."

In 1609, the priest Blas Valera wrote:

"Coca protects the body from many diseases and our doctors use it in powder form to reduce the swelling of wounds, to strengthen broken bones, to drive colds from the body or to prevent it, and to heal rotten wounds or wounds that are full of worms. And if it does so much for external diseases, would it not be its only virtue to have, indeed, an even greater effect on the intestines of those who eat it?"

There is also evidence that these cultures used a mixture of coca plant leaves and saliva as an anesthetic agent for performing trepanation (ancient neurosurgical operations).

Coca plant leaves have been and are still chewed almost universally by some indigenous communities.

Trepanation

In 1859, an Italian doctor, Paolo Mantegazza, returned from Peru, where he had been a firsthand witness to the use of cocaine by the local indigenous peoples. He continued to experiment on himself and upon his return to Milan he wrote an article in which he described its effects. In this article, he declared the coca plant and cocaine (at that time they were assumed to be the same) as medically beneficial in treating “a coated tongue in the morning, stomach gases, and tooth whitening”.

In 1863, Angelo Mariani, who had read Mantegazza's article, started marketing a wine called Vin Mariani, which was treated with coca plant leaves, to make coca wine.

A “pinch of coca leaf” was included in the original 1886 recipe of John Styth Pemberton for the refreshing drink Coca-Cola.

“Cocaine drops for toothache”, an 1885 advertisement for cocaine for children's toothaches

Pope Leo XIII purposely carried a flask of the coca-treated wine “Vin Mariani” and awarded Angelo Mariani a Vatican gold medal

Coca wine

Advertisement in January 1896 issued by McClure’s Magazine for “Burnett’s” cocaine for hair

Cocaine for children for health and strength

In 1879, cocaine began to be used to treat morphine addiction.

Cocaine was introduced into clinical use as a local anesthetic in Germany, in 1884, at the same time when Sigmund Freud published his work “Über Coca”, in which he wrote that cocaine causes:

“Intoxication and a stable euphoria, which in no way differs from the normal euphoria of a healthy person. You perceive an increase in self-control and have more vitality and capacity for work. In other words, you are simply normal and it is very hard to believe that you are under the influence of any drug. Long intensive physical work is done without any fatigue. This result is satisfying without any of the unpleasant effects that follow the intoxication brought by alcoholic drinks. No craving for further use of cocaine appears after the first use, or even after repeating the drug intake.”

In 1885, the American manufacturer Parke-Davis was selling cocaine in various forms, including cigars, powder, and even a cocaine mixture that could be directly injected into the user's veins, needles included. The company promised that its cocaine products “would take the place of food, make the coward brave, the silent eloquent, and render the sufferer insensible to pain”.

At the beginning of the 20th century, in Memphis, Tennessee, cocaine was sold in neighborhood pharmacies on Beale Street, costing five or ten cents for a small packet. Dockworkers along the Mississippi River used the drug as a stimulant, and white employers encouraged its use by colored workers.

In 1909, Ernest Shackleton took “Forced March” brand cocaine tablets to Antarctica, as did Captain Scott a year later on his ill-fated journey to the South Pole.

The alkaloid cocaine was first isolated by the German chemist Friedrich Gaedcke in 1855, who named it “erythroxyline” and published a description in the journal “Archiv der Pharmazie”.

In 1856, Friedrich Wöhler asked Dr. Carl Scherzer, a researcher on the ship Novara (an Austrian frigate sent by Emperor Franz Joseph to circumnavigate the globe) to bring him a large quantity of coca plant leaves from South America. In 1859, the ship completed its journey and Wöhler received a container full of coca plant leaves. Wöhler passed the leaves to Albert Niemann, a Ph.D. student at the University of Göttingen in Germany, who then carried out an improved purification process.

Niemann described every step he took to isolate cocaine in his dissertation titled “Über eine neue organische Base in den Cocablättern” (On a new organic base in the Coca leaves), which he published in 1860 (the dissertation awarded him the Ph.D. degree and is now in the British Library).

He wrote about the “colorless transparent prisms” of the alkaloid and stated that - “Its solution was an alkaline reaction, a bitter taste, that created a flow of saliva and left a peculiar and strange numbness, followed by a sensation of cold when applied to the tongue.

Niemann named the alkaloid “cocaine” from the term “coca” (from the Quechua language word “cuca”) + the suffix “ine”.

The first synthesis and clarification of the molecular structure of cocaine was by Richard Willstätter in 1898.

Use in medicine:

Modern studies have supported a number of these medical applications.

In 1879, Vassili von Anrep, of the University of Würzburg, invented an experiment to demonstrate the analgesic properties of the newly discovered alkaloid. He prepared two separate jars, one containing a cocaine solution, and another containing only saline water. He then submerged a frog's legs into the two jars, one leg in the saline water and one in the control solution, and proceeded to stimulate the legs in various different ways. The leg that was submerged in the cocaine solution reacted very differently from the leg that was submerged in saline water.

In 1885, William Halsted demonstrated nerve block anesthesia and James Leonard Corning demonstrated epidural anesthesia.

In 1898, Heinrich Quincke used cocaine for spinal anesthesia.

Today, cocaine has very limited medical use.

The raw leaves of the coca plant, chewed or consumed as tea or “mate de coca” (fusion tea), are rich in nutritional properties. Specifically, the coca plant contains essential minerals (calcium, potassium, and phosphorus), vitamins (B1, B2, C, and E) and nutrients such as protein and fiber.

THE PLANT

Cocaine is an alkaloid extracted from the coca plant (shrub).

Erythroxylon coca

The Coca plant is cultivated in countries with tropical climates under conditions with sufficient sun and water. There are about 250 types of coca plant. The only plant from which cocaine is extracted is Erythroxylon coca.

Its harvesting season is:

There are areas with three to four harvests per year.

Coca plants generally grow about 1 meter apart from each other's root.

The cultivation of the Coca plant remains stable, around 160,000 hectares globally. The main producers are Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. During the year 2011, 765 - 1,055 tons of cocaine were produced. In the following years, there has been a decrease in cocaine production in Colombia, as well as reduced production in Peru and Bolivia.

Estimated cocaine production

Estimated cocaine production

GENERAL INFORMATION

2-dimensional chemical structure of Cocaine

3-dimensional chemical structure of Cocaine

Pure Cocaine was first used in the 1880s as a local anesthetic in eye, nose, and throat surgeries due to its ability to provide anesthesia, as well as to constrict blood vessels and to limit bleeding. Many of its therapeutic applications are now obsolete due to the development of safer drugs.

About 100 years after cocaine came into use, a new variant of the substance, crack, became very popular in the 1980s, due to its high effect and the fact that it was inexpensive to produce and to buy. Known to users as “freebase”.

Cocaine is a crystalline substance that is difficult to dissolve in water. Odorless, colorless crystalline powder with a bitter taste. It is a highly poisonous drug that causes addiction in the user and is classified as an illegal drug. The addiction is mainly psychological, but in some cases, there is also physical dependence. The risk is higher with crack.

Crack is a powder of cocaine hydrochloride processed into crystal pieces.

Level of cocaine consumption:

WAYS OF USE

Cocaine is snorted through the nose, injected intravenously, or "smoked".

Crack is usually "smoked".

Cocaine is classified as a Schedule I drug under the United Nations Conventions against the illicit traffic of narcotics (drugs) and psychotropic substances.

SHORT-TERM EFFECTS

As a stimulant of the central nervous system, in moderate doses cocaine counteracts fatigue and produces a general sense of well-being and excitement. Appetite is reduced. Among the physical effects, there are increases in heart rate and blood pressure, dilation of pupils (widening of the eyes' pupils), body tremors, and profuse sweating.

High doses can cause distress, anxiety, paranoia, and hallucinations. Paranoia can lead to aggressive behavior.

Very high doses of cocaine can lead to seizures and death as a result of heart attacks or heart failure.

LONG-TERM EFFECTS

Regular use of cocaine can lead to anxiety, insomnia, hyperstimulation, confusion, and weight loss. Further use can lead to psychosis and paranoia.

Repeated snorting damages its membranes and over time leads to the destruction of the septum (the structure that separates the nostrils).

People with heart disease or an overactive thyroid who use cocaine increase their chances of heart damage.

A cocaine user appears energetic and agitated, also showing very little interest in food. Long-term use brings about issues with food and sleep routine.

STREET TERMS