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Cocaine use has reached epidemic proportions.
Millions worldwide are catching ...
A
GREAT
hu–
man trage–
dy
is in the
making!
For the second time
within a century, co–
caine-the white pow–
der crystallized from
coca leaves- has ex–
ploded into a major
social and public health
crisis in human affairs .
Untold millions, espe–
cially young people, will
be affected between now and the
peak of this drug disaster expected
in two or three years.
Early Drug Experiments
The first popularizing of the drug
began in the 1880s. The psycho–
analyst Sigmund Freud experi–
mented with cocaine. He praised
it for the euphoric feelings of vig–
or, sense of power and confidence
Primary coca paste begins as a
dark liquid such as seen here at
illicit Solivian production site (top
left); cocaine laboratory in Colombia
and biggest cocaine haul ever- 13.8
tons-seized by Colombian police
(upper right and center); Peruvian
authorities seize and burn nearly
three tons of coca "pasta," which
when refined could yield a ton of
pure cocaine (bottom right and left).
January 1985
by
Donald D. Schroeder
it gave him. Other prominent phy–
sicians and popular personalities
promoted it. (Later, Freud publicly
admitted cocaine injections pro–
duced rapid physical and mental
deterioration, paranoia and halluci–
nations.)
By the turn of the century,
cocaine's aura of innocence was
gone. What was the effect on the
many who had indulged? In 1924,
Dr. Louis Lewin wrote: "I have
seen among men of science fright–
ful symptoms dueto the craving for
cocaine. Those who believe they
can enter the temple of happiness
through this gate of pleasure pur–
chase their momentary delights at
the cost of body and soul. They
speedily pass through the gate of
unhappiness into the night of the
abyss"
(Cocaine Papers-Sigmund
Freud,
by R. Byck, 1974).
Early in this century,
after numerous cocaine
tragedies, the drug was
prohibited by law in
many nations, except for
medica! use. Various
other addicting opiate
drugs were also prohib–
ited.
But humanity, inun–
dated by the do-your–
own-thing philosophy and
drug culture of the post–
World War II era, failed
to remember the tragic
drug errors of the past, or
even recent human experience.
Again in the last few decades,
cocaine use- as also marijuana–
has followed the pattern of the ear–
lier introduction. Cocaine has been
widely proclaimed to be a relatively
safe recreational drug in moderate
use, even by sorne medical and
scientific personnel.
Cocaine• (in street terms also
called coke, snow, fiake or toot) is
most commonly snorted through
the nostrils to achieve a euphoric
high, but it can also be eaten,
smoked or injected.
Until recent months, cocaine
advocates told us (and sorne still
do) tbat coke is a relatively risk–
free drug. "A snort in each nostril
and you're up and away for 30 min-
*Cocaine comes from tbe coca plant, not to
be confused witb cocoa from tbe cocos
bean.
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