Cocaine: Myths, history and abuse

Abstract

Western civilization is involved with multiple social problems and drug abuse is one of them. Cocaine and its abuse have become over the years a public health problem. This paper intends to provide a historical background to the subject. For more than 4,500 years, South America natives have been using coca leaves. After the industrial revolution in the 19th century, cocaine clorhydrate, an alkaloid present in the coca leaf, reached the developed countries. Many products, which main ingredient was cocaine, were consumed by famous people at that time, such as Vino Mariani, used by Pope Leo XVIII. In medicine, Freud and other doctors used cocaine with the purpose of healing various diseases. However, in the last 30 years, it became more available and its price dropped, making it accessible to an increasing number of people, resulting in alarming consequences to users' health as well as for the whole society.