Early Evidence of the Coca Plant

Erythroxylum (E) Coca, Huanuco or Bolivian coca is the original ancestral variety. Bolivian coca grows best in the moist tropical forests of the eastern Andes of Peru and Bolivia. The earliest coca leaves were discovered in the Huaca Prieta settlement 2500 – 1800 B.C. in the northern coast of Peru; positive proof that the natives of South America were using coca for a series of purposes for more than 1500 years.

All pre-Columbian cultures in the Andes have left evidence of usage of these leaves. Similarly, there is ample evidence that coca was one of the oldest domestic use plants in the New World. Its use extends over an area, which includes Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. This variety is the only one of the four found growing wild. Bolivian coca is the major source of commercially produced coca leaves and cocaine. Coca is a plant whose historic significance dates back to before the conquest of the Incas, in Andean prehistoric times, “… amidst small groups of nomad tribes which inhabited the Andes during the immediate post-glacial period.” The coca leaf was used (and still is) by the Incas, Quechuas and many other Andean cultures.

The Incas Use of Coca

Coca leaves have been chewed by South American Indians for 4500 years to induce a mild and long-lasting euphoria. Anthropologists have speculated that the word coca derives from the pre-Incan Tiwanaku word khoka – meaning “the plant.” The Aymara word q’oka means “food for travelers and workers.” It was found that 100gm of Bolivian coca leaves satisfied the dietary allowance for calcium, iron, phosphorous, vitamin A, vitamin B and vitamin E. The coca leaf was used (and still is) by the Incas, Inca descendants (Quechuans), Tiwanaku, Amyara and other nomadic Andean cultures.

The Incas in particular venerated coca. They used coca in magical ceremonies and initiation rites; for divination and fertility rituals; and to heal their physical and psychological woes. Two of the Inca emperors named their wives after the leaf – the honored consorts were given the plant’s sacred title, Mama Coca. The only object ever carried by the Inca emperor himself was a coca pouch. He wore it around his neck close to his heart.

Francisco Pizarro was the Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire in 1572. When the conquistador invaded South America they initially outlawed coca leaves, but the invaders were impressed at coca’s efficacy as a stimulant.

When the Spanish needed native labor in their silver-mines their minds changed about coca. Work in the mines was extremely arduous, and taking coca reduces appetite and increases physical stamina. Hence there was a great surge in coca-use and the number of coqueros (coca-chewers).

The Indigenous People of the Andes

The indigenous people of the Andean mountain range have been chewing the leaves of the coca plant for years. Archaeological evidence indicates that Peruvians were chewing coca as early as 1800 B.C. Ancient sculptures show the heads of warriors with the characteristic “bulge” in the cheek, depicting coca chewing. The coca plant was one of the first cultivated and domesticated plants in the New World. In certain parts of South America, the coca plant still plays an important role in everyday life. There are some remote parts of countries such as Columbia and Bolivia where coca paste is still used as a money commodity.

Cocaine Addiction Help

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Entertainers are the Targets of Cocaine Addiction

Many people may be able to name a handful of actors and singers they knew that had their lives cut too short due to cocaine overdoses. Chris Farley died of a drug overdose of cocaine and heroin in December 1997. River Phoenix died as a result of taking a combination of cocaine and heroin outside of the night club The Viper Room. He was 23 years old. John Belushi, beloved comic of Saturday Night Live fame, died of an overdose of cocaine and heroin, at the age of 33. Most recently the over enthusiastic TV pitchman, Billy Mays, had cocaine (along with other drugs) found in his blood stream after his autopsy.

The Cinema and Cocaine Depiction

The period prior to World War II saw cocaine use portrayed both in comic situations and in so-called exploitation films which more closely mirrored sensational press coverage where cocaine was viewed as the ‘gateway’ drug to opiates. Cocaine largely disappeared from the recreational drugs scene until the late 1960s. Since then, films as diverse as Easy Rider (1969), Annie Hall (1977), Scarface (1983) and Clean and Sober (1988) have framed cocaine use and dealing variously as comic, heroic, glamorous, as well as damaging. This contrasts with crack cocaine in the context of black cinema in the 1980s and 1990s where settings of violence and death predominate. With the cocaine cartels as the focus, Traffic (2000) questions for the first time in a Hollywood movie, the efficacy of the ‘war on drugs’ while the cocaine trafficking film Blow (2001) returns to a more traditional Hollywood view of vice punished.

George Jung

“A choice without consequences is no choice at all.” This quote is posted on the official Web site of George Jung. Who is George Jung you may ask?

George Jacob Jung (born August 6, 1942), nicknamed “Boston George”, was a major player in the cocaine trade in the United States in the 1970s and early 1980s; he was infamous for being one of the most prolific drug traffickers in the United States during that time. Jung was a part of the Medellen Cartel which was responsible for up to 85 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States. He specialized in the smuggling of cocaine from Colombia on a large scale. His life story was portrayed in the 2001 movie Blow, starring Johnny Depp.

Slang Terms of Cocaine

Blow is a slang term for cocaine, as used in the title of the 2001 movie. Cocaine is also called caviar, snow, cocktail, stardust and rock star. These names show the flamboyant and high class quality of cocaine. Cocaine is usually the drug of choice in the higher circles of Hollywood due to its immediate physical effects.

Physical Effects of Cocaine

The results of smoking or injecting cocaine can be nearly instantaneous, and these immediate effects wear off in 30 minutes to two hours. There are two distinct categories of cocaine effects: short-term effects and long-term effects. Even if a person has only used cocaine once, they can experience short-term cocaine effects. Long-term cocaine effects appear after increased periods of use and are dependent upon the duration of time and amount of cocaine that has been consumed. People who try cocaine often get hooked to the short-term cocaine effects, namely feeling as though they have increased energy. The quick high keeps users feeling energetic and able to endure longer in physical activities. New cocaine users often try cocaine to increase productivity at work and in other areas of their lives so that they can work longer and harder. While these results may seem promising in the beginning, increased tolerance and dangerous life choices often follow repeated cocaine use.

Cocaine effects and addiction don’t distinguish between class, gender, age or even Hollywood. If you or someone you know needs help with a cocaine addiction, we are here to help. Please call our toll free number. We are here to answer your questions on cocaine treatment and recovery.

The U.S./Mexico Border is the primary point of entry for shipments of cocaine being smuggled into the United States. Approximately, 65 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the U.S. crosses the Southwest border, with distributors in the Great Lakes, Pacific, Southeast, Southwest, and West Central regions.

Dominican and Columbian criminal groups control most of the wholesale of cocaine in the United States, however Mexican DTOs and criminal groups wholesale control is increasing. For example, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) New York Field Division reported in 2005 that in some areas of New York City, Mexican criminal groups have supplanted Colombian criminal groups as the primary source of multikilogram-quantities of cocaine. Similarly, the Central Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) recently reported that in some areas of central Florida, Mexican DTOs and criminal groups have supplanted Colombian and Dominican criminal groups as the predominant wholesale cocaine distributors and are establishing new distribution networks (National Drug Intelligence Center, National Drug Threat Assessment 2006). These are highly sophisticated infrastructures to move cocaine by land, sea and air into the U.S., comprising of multiple cells functioning in major metropolitan areas. Each cell performs a specific function within the organization (i.e. transportation, local distribution, or money movement). Key managers in Colombia continue to oversee the overall operation.

Cocaine is distributed in nearly every large and midsize city. Traffickers operating from Columbia control whole-sale distribution throughout the heavily populated northeastern United States and eastern seaboard in cities such as Boston, Miami, Newark, New York and Philadelphia. There are indications that other drug trafficking organizations are playing a larger role in the distribution of cocaine in conjunction with the Columbian organizations. Mexican and Dominican organization, along with the Columbian distributors are responsible for supplying multikilogram quantities of cocaine. Dominican traffickers have normally been responsible for the street level distribution of cocaine, while Mexican drug trafficking organizations are responsible for transporting cocaine from the Southwest border to the New York market.

Mexico Trafficking Organizations

Traffickers from Mexico now control distribution throughout the Western and Midwest United States. There are Mexico-based trafficking groups in cities such as Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle that were once controlled by Columbia-based drug groups. Today, Chicago and Atlanta are key command centers for their cocaine operations. These traffickers control cocaine shipments from the time they are smuggled across the border until they are distributed across the country.

Columbian Trafficking

Columbian cocaine trafficking relies heavily on the eastern Pacific Ocean as a route to move cocaine throughout the United States. They utilize fishing vessels to transport bulk shipments of Cocaine from Columbia to the west coast of Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula. The loads are then broken down into smaller shipments to transport across the Mexico border. However, cocaine continues to transport through the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti as primary transshipment points for Columbian trade. Because of the deteriorating economic conditions, Haiti is becoming a growing transshipment location for Columbian drug lords, designated for the eastern U.S. markets.

Crack Cocaine Trafficking

Street gangs, such as the Crips and Bloods, and criminal groups of ethnic Dominicans, Columbians and Jamaicans dominate the retail market of crack cocaine, the inexpensive, smoke able form of cocaine. The directed expansion of these gangs to smaller U.S. cities and rural areas, as well as a growth in street gangs that imitate their urban counterparts, results in an increase in homicides, armed robberies, and assaults as gang members use physical violence to maintain their drug distribution monopolies.

If you or someone you know is affected by a cocaine addiction, please call our toll-free number. We are available 24 hours a day to answer your questions about cocaine rehab and treatment.

Albert Neimann first isolated and synthesized cocaine powder in 1860 in a pure form from the leaves of coca plants. Soon thereafter, it was used to try and cure almost all the illnesses and maladies known to man. In the form of leaf powder or tea, coca is taken for toothache, ulcers, rheumatism, asthma, and even malaria. Coca tea is often served to tourists arriving in hotels and inns in the high Andes as a remedy for the nausea, dizziness, and headache of soroche (altitude sickness). Unlike other stimulants, coca is also a local anesthetic. The juice of the leaf can be applied to soothe eye irritations or gargled for hoarseness and sore throat. Coca leaves are also used as a topical anesthetic for mouth sores. Coca contains minerals, vitamin C, and some B vitamins, and it is sometimes said to be an important source of these nutrients in the Andean diet.

When it was first introduced to Europe, its medicinal effects on depression, alcohol and morphine addiction, fatigue and as a local anesthetic were discovered. Nonetheless, the result of those who experimented with it for medical purposes soon became dependent on the drug. There was a sense of euphoria and energy that came from taking it as we’ve learned from early experimenters like Sigmund Freud, who would take the drug and record his results.

Cocaine Medical Usage in the United States

In 1886, an elixir containing cocaine from the coca leaf and caffeine from an African kola nut was first marketed in Atlanta. It was sold as a brain tonic recommended for similar medical reasons as it was in Europe (i.e. headaches, morphine addiction, menstrual cramps, etc.). This elixir, commonly known as Coca-Cola, quickly became one of the most popular elixirs in the country. But because the adverse affects of cocaine on the brain, the Coca-Cola Company agreed to stop using coca leaves in their product in 1903.

Up until 1914, cocaine was sold over-the-counter in the United States. It was widely used in tonics, tooth ache cures, patent medicines, and chocolate cocaine tablets. When combined with alcohol, it yielded a potently reinforcing compound, now known to be cocaethylene. Thus cocaine was a popular ingredient in wines, notably Vin Mariani. Coca wine received endorsement from prime-ministers, royalty and even the pope. A singer or actor who drank Mariani’s wine could hardly know how much of the improvement he or she noticed was caused by local anesthesia or constriction of blood vessels in the throat and how much by euphoria and a feeling of mastery. As for stomach and intestinal problems, the gastrointestinal system is probably the most common site of psychosomatic symptoms. The use of coca or cocaine in periods of recovery from long-lasting debilitating diseases represents a similar combination of central and peripheral effects.

Cocaine Usage Today

Today cocaine is used in medicine mainly as a topical anesthetic in eye, ear, nose, and throat surgery and fiber tube optical examinations of the upper respiratory and digestive tracts. It is no longer injected as its primary use in the ways of anesthesia. Beginning in the late 1880s surgical procedures using local anesthetics (numbing a specific area to pain) were starting to be used instead of general anesthesia (rendering a person unconscious). These discoveries were conducted by William Halstead, one of the four founders of The John Hopkins Medical School. He is often referred to as the Father of American Surgery. Halstead would experiment on himself by injecting cocaine to see if surgery could be performed using cocaine as the anesthetic. Consequently after much experimentation, Halstead became addicted, thus inevitably putting his career on the line. He eventually stopped shooting cocaine but began taking morphine instead. It is believed he continued taking morphine for the rest of his life.

Cocaine is still available for use in the nose for surgery, stopping nosebleeds, and as a local anesthetic for cuts in children. The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Inc. considers cocaine to be a valuable anesthetic and vasoconstriction agent when used as part of the treatment of a patient by a physician. No other single drug combines the anesthetic and vasoconstriction properties of cocaine. However, as people have learned about the harmful and addictive reactions to the drug and with the introduction of the Harrison Narcotic Act, cocaine has become a drug that must be regulated by governmental laws and regulations.

If you or someone you know is suffering from the effects of cocaine, treatment is available. To learn more about cocaine rehab, please call our toll free number. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to answer any questions you might have about cocaine treatment.

In the first six months of 1998 the Semiannual Interagency Assessment of Cocaine Movement estimated that 151 metric tons of cocaine arrived in the United States. Cocaine was readily available in all major metropolitan areas. At the time, powder cocaine retailed at approximately $169 per pure gram, a slight decline from 1997′s price. Cocaine was readily available in all major metropolitan areas. The total amount of cocaine available in the United States was 289 metric tons in 1997, the lowest amount since the 1980s and far below the peak of 529 metric tons in 1992.

Cocaine Usage in America

While cocaine use is relatively high, the rate of growth appears to be stable. According to a 2005 Monitoring the Future study, 8 percent of American 12th graders and 3.7 percent of 8th graders reported using cocaine at least once in their lifetime. A National Survey on Drug Use and Heath study in 2004 also stated that 34.15 million Americans over 12 years of age reported lifetime cocaine use and 2 million reported current use. Today, about one in six Americans (15 percent in 2007) has tried cocaine by the age of 30, and 7 percent have tried it by their senior year of high school.

The 1998 Monitoring the Future Survey, which annually surveys teen attitudes and recent drug use, reports that lifetime and past-year use of crack increased among eighth graders to its highest levels since 1991. Crack usage amongst a percentage of eighth graders, who reported using it at least once in their life, increased from 2.7 percent in 1997 to 3.2 percent in 1998. Past-year use of crack also rose slightly among this group, although no changes were found for other grades.

Crack cocaine remains a serious problem in the United States. The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) estimated the number of current crack users to be about 604,000 in 1997, which does not reflect any significant change since 1988. The highest rate of current users is adults in the 18-25 age range. Women are also less likely to use cocaine than men. In 1997, rates of current cocaine use were 1.4 percent for African Americans, 0.8 percent for Hispanics, and 0.6 percent for Caucasians according go to the NHSDA.

Over the years, cocaine has become more and more abused as a recreational drug, especially in the 1980s. It has powerful chemical properties that increase the psychological properties of addiction, thus intensifying the withdrawal symptoms. In 1997, an estimated 1.5 million Americans were cocaine users, a slight decline from 1996 and a substantial decline from the 1985 figure of 5.7 million. This figure represents 0.7 percent of the household population aged twelve and older. Over the past 10 years, that number has not changed much in regards to current users. A widely accepted number of chronic cocaine users each year has been a steady 3.6 million people.

Cocaine Addiction

While emergency room visits for cocaine related incidents remained level between 1994 and 1996 according to The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), after increasing 78 percent between 1990 and 1994, 152,433 cocaine-related episodes were reported in 1996. With regular cocaine use, the addict’s body develops a tolerance for the drug and the abuser must continually use an increased amount of cocaine to feel the same high that he has become accustomed to. As the addict abuses higher doses over time, physical dependence and addiction develop. At this point, the body has adapted to cocaine’s presence and withdrawal symptoms will likely occur if the abuse is reduced or halted.

If you or someone you know is dealing with an addiction to cocaine, please call our toll free number at (866) 872-6495 for cocaine treatment options. Someone is available to take your confidential call 24 hours a day.

Cocaine is the type of drug that is used alone just as often as it is used in combination with other drugs. In fact, many use cocaine as a way to stay awake so that they can stay out longer when they’re partying. Others use it to enhance the effects of other substances. Cocaine is also a drug that can take on many different forms, therefore adopting many names depending on the way in which it is used. Geographic location can also determine the slang term or street name of the drug.

According to the region of the country, the street names for the powder form of cocaine are endless. Popular slang terms are Aunt Nora, Batman, Big Flake, Blanco, Blow, C, Caine, Coca, Coke, Cola, Girl, Gold Dust, Heaven Dust, Lady Liner, Nose Candy, Paradise, Perico, Peruvian Flake, Polvo, Snow, Toot, and/or White. However, in this day and age it is not uncommon to hear teenagers refer to it as Jose or Tommy. These are tactics that again, vary from region to region as well as groups of friends but are used to easily and discretely talk about it in casual conversations without having to refer to the drug itself or a common slang term.

“Crack” is the street name used when it has been processed from cocaine hydrochloride to a ready-to-use form for smoking. The term “crack” refers to the crackling sound made when the substance is heated. It’s a small, rock-like form, combined with another hardening substance. It’s just as addicting as the powder form and can take on just as many nicknames, such as Black Rock, Blotter, Bopper, Trey, Yam, Yay, or Purple Caps. Fake coke or crack can also be called Gaffel, Bunk, Fleece or Flex. The word freebase, in any form, describes the action of or the person who smokes crack—base, basing, based out.

Cocaine Names Based on Usage

There are many street names that refer to the way in which it is used also. To make cocaine look purer by altering it, one may hear it referred to as beiging. Break night is referred to as staying up all night high on cocaine. Inhaling the drug can be heard as blasting, blow blue, blow smoke or booster. A person who swallows balloons of cocaine and other drugs to transport them undetected over the border could be referred to as a body packer or mule.

Combining Cocaine with other Drugs

Cocaine can also be combined with other drugs and take on different terms.

• Marijuana or a cigarette that has been sprinkled with cocaine or any other form of marijuana and cocaine can be heard as Banano, Blunt, Geek Joints, Premos or Primos, Bazooka, P-Dogs, 51, Sherman Stick, Tio, Splitting, Woo Blunt, Woo-Woos, Woolies and/or Woolas.
• Methamphetamine combined with cocaine can be called Shabu or Snow Seals.
• PCP and crack or cocaine can be heard as Beam Me Up, Scottie.
• Cocaine and heroin can be called Belushi , Boy-Girl, H & C, He-she, Murder One, One and One, Smoking Gun, Snowball, Whiz Bang and/or Speedball.
• Cocaine and morphine is as simple as C&M.
• Cocaine, LSD and MDMA combined are commonly referred to as Candy Flipping.
• Tobacco, cocaine and heroin combined is called a Flamethrower.
• And the Five Way refers to five stimulants: heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, rohypnol and alcohol.

Cocaine Usages Internationally

Internationally, drugs can take on different street names and can also be heard about in more publicized arenas such as music and movies. In Europe, you may hear cocaine often referred to as Lois Lane. There are multiple terms, of a Spanish origin, regardless of whether Spanish is spoken in the specific region or neighborhood, that cocaine can be known as—Coca, Cabello, Yeyo, Talco, Perico, Nieve, Mujer and/or Monos.

If you or someone you know is suffering from the effects of cocaine, treatment is available. To learn more about cocaine rehab, please call our toll free number. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to answer any questions you might have about cocaine treatment.