At the beginning of the twentieth century, the medicine cabinets and pantries in many American homes held a variety of pills and foods containing cocaine as an ingredient. At the time, cocaine was considered to offer considerable benefits as an energy booster and as a topical remedy to relieve minor pain such as toothache. For example, in 1900, Sears, Roebuck, and Company advertised a product called Coca Wine. The advertisement for the wine boasted that it “sustains and refreshes both the body and brain… It may be taken at any time with perfect safety … it has been effectually proven that in the same space of time more than double the amount of work could be undergone when Peruvian Wine of Coca was used, and positively no fatigue experienced.”

At the turn of the last century, both the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry believed the claims that cocaine was useful and safe as an energy booster and for pain relief. Doses of the ingredient in foods and medicines were quite small, and most consumers did not experience problems from occasional use of such products. The few people who studied and wrote about cocaine during this era also believed that it had the potential to become a panacea — a wonder drug for the new century.

South American Origins

Although Americans in the early twentieth century saw cocaine as a modern miracle, Indian tribes living in the Andes ranges of South America had known about this drug for five thousand years. People living at high altitudes where the air is thin discovered that chewing the leaves of the indigenous coca plant increased their energy levels. This plant, known to modern-day botanists as Erythroxylon coca, not only boosted energy but seemed to impart a sense of well-being.

Unbeknownst to the Indians, the boost in energy they experienced came from a chemical agent in the leaves called cocaine alkaloid. This chemical also contributes to the coca plant’s abundance — it acts as an insecticide, killing insects that try to feed on the plant.

Cocaine alkaloid occurs in low concentrations in the coca leaf, between .01 and .08 percent. As a result, chewing the leaves delivers a relatively low dose of the drug. At these low doses, people could partake of cocaine and still function normally. Furthermore, because the drug was never ingested in large quantities, its addictive qualities were less pronounced.

Indians noticed other beneficial effects besides the energy boost and euphoria. They discovered that chewing the coca leaf reduced the pain of tooth decay. They also found that chewing coca leaves relieved the physical discomfort that was part of long journeys on foot in the Andes. In fact, the use of coca was so common among mountain travelers that they measured the length of a journey by the number of wads of coca leaves chewed rather than by time or distance.

Introduction to Europe and America

Medical Applications

Commercial Value

Beneficial though cocaine seemed to the medical profession, its real growth was among people who were simply looking for an antidote to fatigue. Since no one in the medical profession had raised any serious reservations about possible harmful effects of cocaine, it appeared to be ideal as an energy booster. The earliest and most popular use of cocaine in a commercial product was the drink Vin Mariani, a mixture of wine and cocaine introduced in England in 1863. The beverage’s popularity was widespread, perhaps due to the fact that Vin Mariani claimed it was endorsed by such luminaries as the American inventor Thomas Edison, British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, England’s Queen Victoria, and even the pope.

Following the success of Vin Mariani, the Coca-Cola Company, in 1886, added 60 milligrams of cocaine to each bottle of its product and advertised it as a beverage that would invigorate the drinker. At about this same time, drug companies also saw the commercial value of cocaine and added it to products designed to relieve sore throats and toothaches.

By 1910 commercialization of products with cocaine was rampant as elixirs sold as magical potions guaranteed to make people happier and more energetic. Claims that these potions could cure everything from backaches to heart problems to difficulties in a person’s love life caused congressional leaders to become alarmed at the widespread and uncontrolled use of cocaine in the nation’s food and drugs.

The elevated moods and energy surges that cocaine induced in its users became widely known. Its effects on the body, however, remained a mystery. Although no ill effects had been observed, many doctors called for research to determine exactly what effects cocaine had on the body and whether any of these effects might have long-term adverse consequences.

Short-Term Physiological Effects

Long-Term Physiological Effects

Is Cocaine Addictive?

Related posts:

1. Introduction to Europe and America The use of coca changed somewhat when the Spanish conquistadors first came to South America during the mid-sixteenth century. After the Spanish conquered the mountain tribes they forcibly converted them to Catholicism; Catholic priests, wishing to stamp out what they saw as a pagan practice, forbade the chewing of coca leaves. The Spanish, however, also...
2. The Cocaine Partnership The cocaine route that begins in the coca fields along the slopes of the Andes and ends five thousand miles away in thousands of American cities is a route built and maintained by an illicit and often violent cocaine partnership. Millions of workers are involved in producing and shipping the cocaine that eventually finds its...
3. Illicit Use of Cocaine The spread of cocaine use among Americans during the early twentieth century began to attract the attention of the medical community and national leaders. Government officials decided to investigate the use of cocaine and learned that large numbers of citizens were buying cocaine not in the form of additives to foods, beverages, and medicines intended...
4. Cocaine During the 1970s After more than two decades of relative obscurity, cocaine re-emerged on the American drug scene in the early 1970s. Deterred by the obvious addictiveness and social stigma of drugs like heroin and the occasional “bad trip” associated with hallucinogens such as LSD, some Americans saw cocaine as a relatively harmless “recreational” drug. Its potential for...
5. Cocaine Interdiction Suppression of the cocaine trade has been one of the American government’s objectives since 1914, when Congress outlawed its general use. In the 1970s, however, other American social institutions joined forces with law enforcement agencies to stem the use of cocaine. Today, in addition to the federal government, organizations as diverse as churches and synagogues,...