No Place to Hide: Drug Abuse in America

If you have been following this series of articles, you have learned how opium and its derivatives morphine and heroin made their way into America’s channels of commerce. In time, each substance acquired an expanding customer base, anchored by the addictiveness of the drug. In the Twentieth Century, the popularity of cocaine in its various forms would prove to reach much deeper and farther than any drug to date.

Cocaine is derived from the coca plant, a plant that grows wild in the high mountain ranges of South America. Natives of these areas chewed coca leaves for the stimulating effects that enabled them to perform heavy labor at high altitudes. The use of coca leaves as a stimulant stretches back more than 2000 years.

In 1860, an Austrian scientist developed a way to process the coca leaves and so extract the first sample of cocaine. By the 1880s, the medical world recognized many uses for cocaine. As cocaine has a numbing effect, it was used for surgeries of the eye, nose or throat. An early advocate for this drug was world-famous psychologist Sigmund Freud. Freud broadly promoted cocaine as a safe and useful tonic that could cure depression and sexual impotence and in 1884, announced that it could be used to treat morphine addiction.

Cocaine got a further boost in acceptability when, in 1886, John Pemberton included cocaine as one of the main ingredients in his new soft drink, Coca-Cola. It was cocaine’s euphoric and energizing effects on the consumer that was mostly responsible for skyrocketing Coca-Cola into its place as the most popular soft drink in history.

If you have read the earlier articles in this series, you read about Civil War veterans who became morphine addicts after being treated for their war injuries. In fact, John Pemberton was a Civil War veteran and a morphine addict, just like thousands of others. He drank his own beverage in an attempt to cure himself of his addiction, and advertised it as a cure for exhaustion, headaches and addiction to morphine.

From the 1870s to the early 1900s, cocaine- and opium-laced elixirs, tonics and wines were openly consumed by men and women of all social classes. American society was, in fact, pervaded by a drug culture. Even celebrities such as Thomas Edison and the famous actress Sarah Berhardt promoted the “miraculous” effects of cocaine elixirs.

Because there were no restrictions placed on acquiring these drugs in the early 1900s, narcotic use was an acceptable way of life for a large number of people, many of whom were people of stature. Pharmaceutical company Parke-Davis sold a kit for the administration of cocaine, promoting that the drug “can supply the place of food, make the coward brave, the silent eloquent and... render the sufferer insensitive to pain.”

Cocaine was a mainstay in the silent film industry. The death of a number of young starlets, a director and an actor, linked or rumored to be linked to drugs, broadcast the drug and alcohol habits of the industry. Then as now, celebrities are role models that can and do influence the masses.

With the world’s most famous psychologist, the man that invented the light bulb, a stable of Hollywood silent film stars, and the inventor of the most popular soft drink in history all on the “Cocaine Is Good” bandwagon, the message was unmistakable. Even Pope Leo XIII endorsed the excellence of cocaine-fortified wine in advertising posters.

As had happened with opium, morphine and heroin, cocaine began to be used as an active ingredient in a variety of patent medicines and remedies. Dr. Tucker’s Specific contained 1.5 percent cocaine and As-ma-syde contained 16 percent cocaine. But Ryno’s Hay Fever and Catarrh Remedy measured 99 percent cocaine! And Cocaine Toothache Drops promised “Instantaneous Cure!”

For many years, tonics and remedies containing cocaine, sometimes mixed with other narcotics, were administered freely to young and old alike. It wasn’t until some years later that the dangers of these drugs became apparent.

In fact, it was the negative side-effects of habitual cocaine use that was responsible for coining the phrase “dope fiend.” This term came about because of the behavior of a person abusing cocaine for prolonged periods of time. Cocaine is such a powerful stimulant that prolonged daily use of the drug creates severe sleep deprivation and loss of appetite. A user might go days or weeks without sleeping or eating properly, finally breaking into psychotic behavior. They may hallucinate and become delusional.

Withdrawing from cocaine causes severe depression, so much so that the person withdrawing will do just about anything to get more of it, including murder. Or if the drug is not readily available, cocaine-dependent users may attempt suicide. A study in New York City later in the century found that 29 percent of all suicides aged 21 to 30 tested positive for cocaine.

As the dangers of cocaine use and addiction became more and more apparent, a public outcry arose to ban the social use of cocaine. This public pressure forced Pemberton to remove cocaine from Coca-Cola in 1903. The country’s legislators took notice, and  cocaine was added to the list of narcotics outlawed by the Dangerous Drug Act of 1920.

Unfortunately, as with the earlier narcotics, the dangers of cocaine abuse were recognized by law makers after the cocaine habit had become deeply entrenched in the American culture. This habit is still with us today.

In the late 1970s, a new twist on the old habit came to light. Drug dealers had a method of testing cocaine for purity that involved cooking the cocaine so as to concentrate the active ingredient. The resulting rocks of crack cocaine could then be smoked, resulting in an almost-instant high. Unfortunately, crack cocaine was even more addictive than powder cocaine. In 1985, for example, the number of Americans ages 12 and older who admitted using cocaine in a national survey increased from 4.2 million to 5.8 million. The next year, cocaine-related hospital emergency room visits more than doubled.

Crack cocaine is the most popular type of cocaine being sold and consumed today. 

With its intense addictiveness, crack has destroyed millions of lives and devastated millions of families since it was first introduced to the streets of America.

But even the pervasive influence of cocaine in the early 20^th Century and the subsequent arrival of crack cocaine would not define the drug problems that have assaulted Americans for the last few decades. From the 1970s to the end of the millennium, drug abuse found dozens of new forms and millions of new users. Pharmaceutical companies seemed to participate in the developing disaster by distributing painkillers, sleep aids and mood elevators that were addictive and prone to abuse – without emphasizing the addictiveness in their briefings to the doctors who would administer them to patients. Sophisticated drug trafficking channels meant that whatever type of drug was desired would probably be available anywhere in the country that one found himself located.

As there is no place to hide from the supply and abuse of drugs in this country, the only protection comes from understanding the problem and knowing how to solve the problems of drug abuse and addiction when they arise. We will address these points in upcoming articles in this series.

This article is the fourth in a series presented in the public interest by Narconon Arrowhead, one of the country’s leading drug education and rehabilitation centers, located in Canadian, Oklahoma. For more information on the rehabilitation and educational services of Narconon Arrowhead, call 1-800-468-6933 today or visit the website www.stopaddiction.com. The Narconon program was founded in 1966 by William Benitez in Arizona State Prison, and is based on the humanitarian works of L. Ron Hubbard. In more than 120 centers around the world, Narconon programs restore drug and alcohol abusers and addicts to a clean and sober lifestyle.