History of cocaine

 

Cocaine is an alkaloid derived from the leaf of the Erythroxylum coca. Coca leaf chewing was originally used by South American Indians in order to derive strength from its stimulant properties. In 1859 the cocaine was first extracted by Albert Niemann, a German chemist, and began to be promoted as a tonic for wellbeing in the 1880s. John Pemberton, a pharmacist, famously included coca leaves as an original key ingredient in the soft drink “Coca-cola” before it was removed in 1903. Cocaine wasn’t banned in America until 1922 when deaths related to its use reached over 5000 a year.  

 

Despite this, a UK study in 2009 found that 2.8 million people aged 16-59 admitted to having ever taken cocaine, with 813,000 having used it that year. Cocaine is known as the “wealthy man’s drug” due to the high cost, however, purity to the user is now down to 5-20%, due to the wholesale cost rising to £50,000 per kilogram- twice that of 10 years ago.