What is the Origin of Cocaine?

Narconon has spent many years treating individuals for addiction to cocaine. This highly addictive drug has negatively impacted countless people throughout the world and shaped human history.

The South American Coca Plant

For more than a thousand years the people native to South America have used coca leaves orally.  The coca leaves known formerly as the Erythroxylon coca are a plant that has life sustaining nutrients in it as well as cocaine.  To this day, aboriginal tribes of South America chew the leaves of the coca plant. Just like many cocaine users today, the natives chewed the coca leaf to feel good.

When Spanish settlers came to South America they were introduced to the coca leaf and told that it would give them power and vitality.  When they found out that this, to a certain extent, was true they taxed it so they could keep 10% of the profits from every crop.

Cocaine Historical References

The Spanish and the South Americans believed it was a panacea, or a cure-all, that could heal physical wounds and cure colds.  Cocaine is a stimulant and it will suppress one’s appetite but all other claims are questionable.

Friedrich Gaedcke, a chemist from Germany, was the first to isolate the cocaine alkaloid in 1855.  He called it “erythroxyline”.   A few years later, a German med student named Albert Niemann discovered a better process for purifying cocaine.  Niemann got his Ph.D. for his write up on this very process.  His thesis is now in the British Library.  The name cocaine comes from “coca” the name of the coca leaves and the suffix “caine” that is the suffix used with man-made local anesthetics.

Cocaine Used As Medicine

It was shortly after the isolation of the alkaloid now known as cocaine that European medicine started to market it and use it mostly for anesthesia.  Cocaine use in today’s medicine is almost non-existent.  Cocaine was also used to combat addiction to morphine starting in 1879.

Cocaine In Popular Culture

Angelo Mariani, a chemist, in 1863 marketed Vin Mariani, a wine containing extracts from coca leaves.  The original Coca-Cola soft drink had coca leaves in it until the Pure Food and Drug Act was established.  Another U.S. company named Parke-Davis marketed cocaine in a variety of forms.  In 1885 they sold it in cigarettes, powder, and they even sold an injectable form that included a needle so that people could self-administer this “wonder-drug.”   They sold their cocaine infused products as a replacement for eating, and a way to make timid people courageous.

Cocaine gained such popularity that fiction writer Arthur Conan Doyle created his most famous character Sherlock Holmes with an addiction to cocaine.

Cocaine was so widely used that it was being sold in local drugstores in Memphis, Tennessee for just a few cents per box.

Cocaine is Made Illegal

By the early 1900’s, cocaine’s addictive and destructive nature had shown its face.  The drug was mainly associated with lower class people and some were blaming a recent string of attacks on white women from African American males under the influence of cocaine, although there is no real evidence of this.  The drug was misclassified as a narcotic when it is in fact a stimulant.  This misunderstanding led to difficulty in enforcing a law against it until in 1970 when the government listed it as a controlled substance.

Cocaine Today

Cocaine is as popular as ever today.  In the late 1980’s in the United States, crack cocaine popped up in poor neighborhoods.  This made use of the drug reach higher numbers than ever throughout the nineties and onward.  In 2005, there was more than $70 billion worth of cocaine sold in just the United States.  This makes it one of the most lucrative markets imaginable.

Are You or a Loved One Addicted to Cocaine?

Narconon cocaine rehab centers have a specialized chemical dependency treatment program.  We have the best method to conquer an addiction to cocaine, which starts by first ridding the body of all cocaine residuals.  A person does this in our Sauna Program under the expert supervision of our staff.  Dietary changes help a person start to feel better physically, as does exercise.  Merging these with the Sauna Program allows a person to come back to ideal health.  It also gets a person’s mind clear so they are ready for the more mental part of our Program.  Here an individual will learn how to take control of his life and be content.  We believe that addiction to cocaine is just an indication of discontent and absence of self-control.  When someone learns how to face his or her fears and his or her life and has resolved the shame and guilt associated with the wreckage caused by cocaine addiction they are ready to lead a joyful and dynamic life.  When one can live happily and effectively, the yearning to use cocaine or other drugs fades away.

Narconon Vista Bay is here to help you break free from addiction so you can take control of your life and achieve your dreams.  Vista Bay reviews potential clients by phone before intake to determine acceptance.  76% of our graduates are still drug and alcohol-free a year after graduating our Program.  Give us a call at the number above.  We can help.