home
> essays
> drugs > cocaine
Cocaine
Use
by
Andrew D. Carson, Ph.D.
A number of plants produce chemicals that serve as stimulants; in such natural form, the stimulants are generally (but not always) milder and less risky than refined extractions of the chemicals. For example, coca leaves as traditionally chewed by native peoples of Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia are relatively harmless, while their derivative, cocaine, can be addictive and dangerous (Weil and Rosen, 1983). The region continues to be the only source of coca leaves.
The medical community touted cocaine in the late nineteenth century as a powerful local anaesthetic. Sigmund Freud, for example, became an avid user of cocaine. Growing awareness of its addictive properties then resulted in its use being highly restricted to only a few medical procedures, and its popularity as an illegal drug has continued over the years, where its high cost coupled with high demand has provided enormous profits to successful smugglers and dealers. Snorting cocaine (as a powder through the nose), and other variations of delivering the drug in concentrated doses (injections or smoking) provides a "rush" of intense stimulation. In its various forms, cocaine is reportedly used by two million individuals in the United States (Frohberg & Herting, 1999).
This rush probably accounts for its special to individuals high in personality traits associated with thrill-seeking. However, one cannot discount the possibility that, because of its high price tag, it has acquired by association a "brand" that conveys success, wealth, and being a "high-rolling" player. At any rate, at various times in recent years it has (reportedly) been an illegal drug of choice among various occupational groups that earn a great deal of money, do not eschew risk, and who have a reputation for putting in long hours: investment bankers, entertainment industry professionals, wealthy professional athletes, young dotcom startup executives, and other hip urban professionals.
Links:
Cocaine
(from Encyclopedia.com)
Cocaine, in Factfile
on Drugs (BBC News).
Report
of use of cocaine at work among Dutch workers.
Report that
high percentage of callers of 800-cocaine hotline have been under the
influence of cocaine at work.
Sigmund Freud, On
Cocaine. Selection.
History of Coca Cola
and coca, from cocaine.org.
Lyrics to Casey
Jones by the Grateful Dead.
Business
of smuggling cocaine out of Columbia.
Studio 54,
Cocaine, and the New York star scene in the late 1970s.
Druggie Nation,
by J. A. Califano, Jr., how in the 1970s cocaine was used by investment
bankers, and possibly by a future politician.
References to citations in the text.
Essays
| Library | Links
Counseling |
Assessment |
Consulting
About | Legal &
Disclaimer | Editor | Contact
Updated March 16, 2008
Page and site © 2008 Andrew Carson,
all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.