Criminal
03-07-2003, 10:04 PM
http://www.adjunctcollege.com/cocaine.html
Long before cocaine was extracted from the coca plant, the leaves were chewed by the Indians of Peru and other South American countries. This practice began before recorded history, so our knowledge is derived totally from archaeological sources. Line drawings on pottery found in northwestern South America show evidence that coca chewing was part of the culture before the rise of the Incan Empire, perhaps as early as 3,000 B.C., and that its effects on mood and behavior were very profound and much appreciated by the Indians. The coca plant was considered to be a gift of the gods and was used during religious rituals, burials and for other special purposes. By the time the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, the Incan Empire was in decline. By this time, coca was no longer used only by the ruling class or only in association with ritual.
History
"The use of cocaine was unknown in Europe until the Spaniards conquered the South American continent. Indians living in and around the Andes mountains have chewed the coca leaf since time immemorial. Spanish church authorities initially banned the use of coca leaf because they were convinced the effects of the leaf resulted from a pact between the devil and the Indians. However, the low quality of labour Indians presented in the many mines where they were put to work without coca chewing led the Church to stop forbidding the old custom. She then initiated a tax of 10% on the price of coca leaf.
A 19th century visitor to Peru gave witness of having used coca leaf himself, stating it gave him a pleasant soothing experience. It enabled him to "endure long abstinence from food with less inconvenience than I should otherwise have felt, and it enabled me to ascend precipitous mountain sides with a feeling of lightness and elasticity and without loosing breath". He recommended its use to members of alpine clubs.
In the second half of the nineteenth century the prime alkaloid from the coca leaf, cocaine, was isolated in chemically pure form. An Italian, Mariani, applied the alkaloid immediately in a drink, Vin Mariani. This drink would become famous and remain so into the early 20th century.
Scientific circles started to show some interest after Freud's study "Über Coca" (1884) and after the application of cocaine as a local anaesthetic in eye surgery (1884). Confusion about the effects of cocaine -- is it a narcotic (cf Kollers way of using it) or a stimulant (cf Freud's way of using it) -- has raised considerable attention.
Cocaine may be ingested in several ways. Indians chew the leaf together with a small amount of calcium. The calcium serves to make the cocaine more available to the saliva of the chewer. An Indian will chew during one day several small bundles of leaf, ingesting the cocaine via the mucous membranes of mouth and throat. Typical use of an Indian chewer is estimated to be around 60 grams of leaf or ca 400 milligrams of cocaine per day.
Chemically produced cocaine hydrochloride from the coca leaf was used in Vin Mariani, but also in many other popular drinks, of which Coca Cola is the most well known. At the beginning of the 20th century these so called coca tonics were forbidden.
Presently cocaine is mostly used as a powder, snorted intranasally in dosages of 10 to 30 mg (so called lines) or injected intravenously by some users in dosages between 50 and 500 mg.3
Modern use of cocaine occurs most frequently by snorting. By snorting, cocaine hydrochloride is being conveyed into the blood stream via the mucous membranes of the nose and throat in which it dissolves. Several patterns of snorting are known. One can snort a few times a year in certain social groups, one can use every weekend and some use cocaine daily, sometimes repeatedly. Which frequency of use is chosen depends on taste, availability, financial means, fashions in ones social circles, etc. An individual use pattern is a complicated mixture of frequency and social rules of use. Use patterns are not static. A person may be abstinent for a couple of months then turn to frequent daily use until a certain work or task is finished, be abstinent again until the next occasion, and so on.
Also, with i.v. users several patterns are known. Persons who mainly inject can have sudden periods of very frequent injecting (so called binge use). Cocaine injections may be mixed with heroin to make "speedballs" although in the U.S. the injection of cocaine only is reported to be most frequent among injectors.4 It is assumed that in the Netherlands this is not different.
It will be clear that a completely reliable report on the quantity a user uses per week or month is not possible. This is not only due to the large differences a user may show in use patterns, but also to the unknown purity of cocaine on the illegal market.
A relatively rare way of ingesting cocaine is by smoking it free based. Cocaine hydrochloride, the substance available on the black market, is made basic in order to recreate the original free base alkaloid of cocaine. Cocaine free base is volatile which makes it fit for smoking. Untreated street cocaine (hydrochloride) would simply burn, for instance when smoked with tobacco. The effect of cocaine free base smoking is reported to be immediate and strong, comparable to the 'flash' effect of an injection. The mild and subtle effects of cocaine, which can only be learned through experience, are said to be not comparable to the effects of smoking free base."
Long before cocaine was extracted from the coca plant, the leaves were chewed by the Indians of Peru and other South American countries. This practice began before recorded history, so our knowledge is derived totally from archaeological sources. Line drawings on pottery found in northwestern South America show evidence that coca chewing was part of the culture before the rise of the Incan Empire, perhaps as early as 3,000 B.C., and that its effects on mood and behavior were very profound and much appreciated by the Indians. The coca plant was considered to be a gift of the gods and was used during religious rituals, burials and for other special purposes. By the time the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, the Incan Empire was in decline. By this time, coca was no longer used only by the ruling class or only in association with ritual.
History
"The use of cocaine was unknown in Europe until the Spaniards conquered the South American continent. Indians living in and around the Andes mountains have chewed the coca leaf since time immemorial. Spanish church authorities initially banned the use of coca leaf because they were convinced the effects of the leaf resulted from a pact between the devil and the Indians. However, the low quality of labour Indians presented in the many mines where they were put to work without coca chewing led the Church to stop forbidding the old custom. She then initiated a tax of 10% on the price of coca leaf.
A 19th century visitor to Peru gave witness of having used coca leaf himself, stating it gave him a pleasant soothing experience. It enabled him to "endure long abstinence from food with less inconvenience than I should otherwise have felt, and it enabled me to ascend precipitous mountain sides with a feeling of lightness and elasticity and without loosing breath". He recommended its use to members of alpine clubs.
In the second half of the nineteenth century the prime alkaloid from the coca leaf, cocaine, was isolated in chemically pure form. An Italian, Mariani, applied the alkaloid immediately in a drink, Vin Mariani. This drink would become famous and remain so into the early 20th century.
Scientific circles started to show some interest after Freud's study "Über Coca" (1884) and after the application of cocaine as a local anaesthetic in eye surgery (1884). Confusion about the effects of cocaine -- is it a narcotic (cf Kollers way of using it) or a stimulant (cf Freud's way of using it) -- has raised considerable attention.
Cocaine may be ingested in several ways. Indians chew the leaf together with a small amount of calcium. The calcium serves to make the cocaine more available to the saliva of the chewer. An Indian will chew during one day several small bundles of leaf, ingesting the cocaine via the mucous membranes of mouth and throat. Typical use of an Indian chewer is estimated to be around 60 grams of leaf or ca 400 milligrams of cocaine per day.
Chemically produced cocaine hydrochloride from the coca leaf was used in Vin Mariani, but also in many other popular drinks, of which Coca Cola is the most well known. At the beginning of the 20th century these so called coca tonics were forbidden.
Presently cocaine is mostly used as a powder, snorted intranasally in dosages of 10 to 30 mg (so called lines) or injected intravenously by some users in dosages between 50 and 500 mg.3
Modern use of cocaine occurs most frequently by snorting. By snorting, cocaine hydrochloride is being conveyed into the blood stream via the mucous membranes of the nose and throat in which it dissolves. Several patterns of snorting are known. One can snort a few times a year in certain social groups, one can use every weekend and some use cocaine daily, sometimes repeatedly. Which frequency of use is chosen depends on taste, availability, financial means, fashions in ones social circles, etc. An individual use pattern is a complicated mixture of frequency and social rules of use. Use patterns are not static. A person may be abstinent for a couple of months then turn to frequent daily use until a certain work or task is finished, be abstinent again until the next occasion, and so on.
Also, with i.v. users several patterns are known. Persons who mainly inject can have sudden periods of very frequent injecting (so called binge use). Cocaine injections may be mixed with heroin to make "speedballs" although in the U.S. the injection of cocaine only is reported to be most frequent among injectors.4 It is assumed that in the Netherlands this is not different.
It will be clear that a completely reliable report on the quantity a user uses per week or month is not possible. This is not only due to the large differences a user may show in use patterns, but also to the unknown purity of cocaine on the illegal market.
A relatively rare way of ingesting cocaine is by smoking it free based. Cocaine hydrochloride, the substance available on the black market, is made basic in order to recreate the original free base alkaloid of cocaine. Cocaine free base is volatile which makes it fit for smoking. Untreated street cocaine (hydrochloride) would simply burn, for instance when smoked with tobacco. The effect of cocaine free base smoking is reported to be immediate and strong, comparable to the 'flash' effect of an injection. The mild and subtle effects of cocaine, which can only be learned through experience, are said to be not comparable to the effects of smoking free base."