Uses of Cocaine

Uses of Cocaine

Introduction

Cocaine

Cocaine is an extremely dominant nervous system stimulant. It is found in raw form inside the leaves of the coca plants (Erythroxylum). The purified extract from the leaves is cocaine. It is found in South America (Andes region). There are two major varieties of cocaine:

Crack cocaine. This is generally recognized on the street as "rock" or "crack" and is prepared by a chemical procedure leaving it in its "freebase" form, which is consumed in smoking.

Powdered cocaine. This is generally recognized on the street as "blow" or "coke". It is water soluble. Consumers normally inject or sniff cocaine in this form.

Coca leaf was a common food thousands of years ago; the natives (in South America) chewed the raw leaves which had comparable results to that of a strong coffee. The coca plant was traditionally used in anesthetics, for energy, and to help stop bleeding. It was supposed to help cure illness like malaria, ulcers, asthma and indigestion, and it was also used as an aphrodisiac as well as to improve long life.

The coca plant offers many vital nutrients and is rich in vitamins as well as proteins. It can thrive where numerous other plants cannot. Coca was initially grown in the Andes region, it is not easy to grow nutritious plants there, the added energy boost and pain reducing traits were very useful because of high altitudes. The intended use of coca was as a medicinal, nutritional and spiritual resource and should not be mixed with modern day maltreatment of cocaine in smoking, sniffing and injecting. Abuse of cocaine leads to addiction, and ultimately there arises a need for the 'cocaine rehab center'.

Discussion

Uses of Cocaine

Once cocaine was discovered (in its purest form - alkaloid form) by Niemann (1860), western medicine and its practitioners tried to take advantage of its use in medicine. Experiments were done in 1879, to exploit its use as a potential analgesic, later on it reached uses for local anesthesia in ophthalmology, respiratory system, nerve, epidural and also spinal anesthesia.

In 1863, Angelo Mariani (a chemist), started a wine name Vin Mariani which was treated with coca leaves and became coca-wine. In 1886, the coca cola recipe had an addition of coca leaves, but in 1906 after the “pure food and drug act” was passed, it switched to de-cocainized leaves. After Sigmund Freud (a psychology guru), published his article “Uber coca”, cocaine was available openly for use as a supply of food, change of personality (transforming the coward into brave), pain reliever, remover of shyness (even shy and uncommunicative people started to talk eloquently after its intake), source of vitality and fatigue reduction supplement. It was even used as motivating pills in World War II for German soldiers.

The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, disqualified drinks and food having cocaine in its ingredients and additional legal limitations swiftly followed, resulting in regulation of cocaine and opiates (the Harrison Act of 1914., Cocaine, in addition to the coca leaf, were still given infrequently throughout the 1920s, ...