Cocaine
is derived from the coca plant, a shrub that is
native to the mountains of North West South America.
It has been chewed by the indigenous tribes for
thousands of years as it helped them to overcome
hunger, exhaustion and other ailments as they worked
at high altitudes in the Andes. It was considered
sacred by them and seen as a gift from the gods and
they made regular offerings to Mama Coca in
religious ceremonies.
The Catholic Spanish Conquistador considered the
chewing of coca to be the work of the devil and
banned its use. However this was repealed once they
realised that without it, the enslaved workers were
unable to mine for silver and gold as efficiently,
and that it was a taxable commodity.
Although
the Spanish brought it back to Europe, it made no
real impact initially as the leaf travels poorly and
lost much of its potency in transit. However in the
1850's a chemist called Angelo Mariana discovered
that by adding coca leaves to wine, the alcohol
would act as a solvent and extract some of the
active ingredient, and Coca wine or Vin Maria was
created.
At the same time other German chemists sought to
isolate the active ingredients of the coca plant.
Friedrich Gaedecke first achieved this in 1855 and
the process was further improved by Albert Neimann
about four years later. He washed the coca leaves in
85% alcohol, distilled it and mixed it with
bicarbonate of soda.
Sigmund Freud described the properties of cocaine as
"...exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which in
no way differs from the normal euphoria of the
healthy person...You perceive an increase of
self-control and possess more vitality and capacity
for work....In other words, you are simply normal,
and it is soon hard to believe you are under the
influence of any drug....Long intensive physical
work is performed without any fatigue...This result
is enjoyed without any of the unpleasant
after-effects that follow exhilaration brought about
by alcohol....Absolutely no craving for the further
use of cocaine appears after the first, or even
after repeated taking of the drug...".
From
the 1880's to the turn of the century cocaine was
used for a wide range of purposes including as an
anaesthetic (see the advert for toothache drops to
the right) and taken alone or added to a
variety of drinks to give an increase in energy and
to prevent tiredness.
The
addition of (allegedly) around 60mg of cocaine to
each serving of the original Coca-Cola
may have contributed the rise in popularity of a
beverage touting itself as offering ‘all the virtues
of coca without the vices of alcohol’.
For more information about
Coca-cola, click on the picture to the left.
Interestingly, a 1914 article
in the New York Times lead to many Southern sheriffs
increasing the calibre of their weapons from .32 to
.38 to "bring down Negroes under the effect of
cocaine". Click
here
for more details.
Cocaine
is derived from the coca plant, a shrub that is
native to the mountains of North West South America.
It has been chewed by the indigenous tribes for
thousands of years as it helped them to overcome
hunger, exhaustion and other ailments as they worked
at high altitudes in the Andes. It was considered
sacred by them and seen as a gift from the gods and
they made regular offerings to Mama Coca in
religious ceremonies.
Although
the Spanish brought it back to Europe, it made no
real impact initially as the leaf travels poorly and
lost much of its potency in transit. However in the
1850's a chemist called Angelo Mariana discovered
that by adding coca leaves to wine, the alcohol
would act as a solvent and extract some of the
active ingredient, and Coca wine or Vin Maria was
created. 
From
the 1880's to the turn of the century cocaine was
used for a wide range of purposes including as an
anaesthetic (see the advert for toothache drops to
the right) and taken alone or added to a
variety of drinks to give an increase in energy and
to prevent tiredness.
