Drug stories: the golden era of cocaine

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http://www.thegooddrugsguide.com/articles/c_golden.htm

 

the real thing

One of the most famous cocaine products was Vin Mariani, the first of many

cocaine-based wines. Jules Verne quaffed it and wrote Round The World In 80

Days, a feat surely only conceivable under the influence of coke.

Louis Bleriot had a bottle in his cockpit during his strangely-accelerated

flight across the English Channel.

 

Bartholidi, the architect responsible for the Statue of Liberty, declared:

" Vin Mariani seems to brighten to increase all our faculties; it is very

probable that had I taken it 20 years ago, the Statue Of Liberty would have

attained the height of several hundred meters. "

 

With his gurning, coke-addled face on it no doubt

..

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early coca-cola poster coca cola

The most famous cocaine product, of course, was a secret mix of coca-leaf

extract, sugar and the caffeine-rich kola nut. Its name? One guess.

 

Developed by Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton, Coca Cola was marketed as

the perfect beverage for a " turbulent, inventive, noisy, neurotic new

America, " good for " any nerve trouble, mental and physical exhaustion. "

 

Advertisements at the time declared the drink to be " one of the most

delightful, cheering, and invigorating of fountain drinks. " No doubt. In

1886, every bottle contained the equivalent of a small but respectable line

of cocaine.

 

By 1902, the Coca Cola Company had ceased to use coca-leaf extractin its

manufacturing process, and then conveniently forgot they had ever used

cocaine. The Coca Cola museum in Atlanta does not mention Coca Cola's debt

to the magic bush from Peru.

If LSD was the 60s and ecstasy was the 90s, the drug that characterised the

80s was undoubtedly cocaine. The memories and cultural achievements of the

decade taste forgot should be enough evidence to stop coke use for ever.

Here are a few: deedy boppers, Duran Duran, shellsuits, perms, leg warmers,

estate agents - the list is endless.

 

Cocaine use hit its peak in the US in 1985 with over 5.7 million users

(nearly 3% of the population) using cocaine at least " once every month " .

 

the champagne drug

Demand for the marching powder in America grew alongside the economic

deregulation, aggressive business practices and foreign policies of the

Reagan and Thatcher era.

What better way was there to spend your wads of cash than on the expensive

and elite drug du jour, the champagne drug? Vice-jawed yuppies and American

psychos hoovered it up.

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godless communism

America's insatiable demand for cocaine was fed by a expanding industry in

South America. At the same time, the CIA's support for the Contras against

the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua in 1987 (justified as the

struggle of " the free world " versus " godless communism " ) was heavily funded

by trafficking from Colombian cocaine plantations. Well-organised,

well-armed cartels emerged to control supply and profits.

 

Farmers in Colombia, Mexico, Bolivia and Peru quickly learnt that cocaine

was a far more lucrative crop than maize, tea, tobacco, rice or rubber. It

was easy to cultivate and transport, and yielded several crops a year with

guaranteed sales.

Farmers can sell 1kg of unrefined cocaine base for $690. Street value:

$200,000. That's a mark-up of 28,000%.

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crack cocaine crack invented

The increase in demand led to a drop in price. This led to the development

of 'crack cocaine', a cheap mix of cocaine and baking powder (sodium

bicarbonate) which, when smoked, gives an intense, short-lived but

compelling hit.

Crack cocaine flooded into US cities and crippled urban - often black -

communities.

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drug wars

Cocaine is not going away. Ex-President Clinton donated a $1.6bn aid package

for the war against drugs to " dramatically strengthen and solidify the

Colombian Government in its struggle to preserve democracy " . George W Bush

has reaffirmed America's war on drugs.

Yet cocaine supplies show no sign of abating. Not surprising really, since

the average cartel can earn $7- $10bn a year from the trade. Most of it from

America and its insatiable population.

Before the West trampled all over South America, the coca bush was highly

revered as a " divine plant " .

The Incas used its leaves as currency. The Peruvians chewed them as fuel for

high altitude treks and measured their journeys in " cicadas " - the time

between doses of coca. In the 16th century the Spanish stormed in and tried

to eradicate its unholy use. But they found their native slaves wouldn't

work without it.

 

It took until the mid 19th century for the industrialised West to get a

taste for Peru's 4,000-year-old secret. German paediatrician Albert Niemann

extracted cocaine hydrochloride from coca leaves in 1860.

 

The public got its first whiff of cocaine when it was used successfully to

anaesthetise the surface of the human eye in 1884. In the days before

painkillers, this was very big news.

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super product

For the ham-fisted pharmaceutical industry of the time, cocaine became a

super product. Here was an ancient substance that could change the world, a

'miracle cure' prescribed for (no shit): drug addiction, alcoholism,

depression and fatigue.

 

Endless cocaine syrups, pastilles, wines, tonics, and elixirs appeared,

alongside toothache drops, haemorrhoid creams, balms, ointments and

cordials. These products usually contained huge amounts of cocaine. Rayno's

Hay Fever remedy, for example, was basically a pure cocaine solution. The

bottle recommended that you take it " two to ten times a day. "

 

By 1900, cocaine was in the top five pharmaceutical products in the US and

was selling for around $2.50 per gram.

This was the real thing.

Synthetic versions of cocaine without the psychoactive effects are used

extensively as local anesthetics in medicine, mainly by dentists (Novocain)

and for numbing the lower body (epidurals) in childbirth.

 

 

The total number of people who have tried Ecstasy in the UK is estimated at

over 5 million.

Each weekend, an estimated 400,000 people take E and there are some 1.2

million regular users. This figure has remained constant over several years

as elder ravers get bored and move on, and young new acolytes rise up to

swell the ranks.

Through Acid House, Hardcore, Drum 'n Bass, Techno and the current Trance

boom, every rebirth of dance music brings new people into nightclubs and

into contact with Ecstasy.

 

In America, the rave scene is growing, despite harsh law enforcement, poor

quality 'electronica' music and huge amounts of ecstasy hysteria.

Between October 1, 1999, and February 29, 2000, US Customs agents

confiscated 4 million tablets of the drug, one million more than in the

whole of last year. Seizures of Ecstasy are expected to grow eight-fold by

the end of the year.

the perfect E space

The modern nightclub, with its sound-activated vibrating floor, intense

lasers, light shows, and 20K state-of-the-art sound system, is the result of

the continuing evolution of the perfect space in which to take ecstasy.

 

And while bouncers conduct strict front-door searches, the back doors are

freely open to dealers as the DJs and VIPs 'large it' away from public view.

 

rite of passage

Ecstasy has brought drugs into the mainstream. It has even been suggested

that trying ecstasy and cannabis is now a teenage rite-of-passage, almost as

casual as alcohol and cigarettes were in the past.

 

Ecstasy may be replacing alcohol for a new generation. Booze is now packaged

with ever more club-like branding. Strobe, K and NT (Night Time) are

aggressively marketed to appeal to the disinterested youth market. Alcohol

sales in Luton decrease by a third on the nights of the huge EXODUS free

parties.

 

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decriminalisation

At present, political contingents in Holland, Spain and Denmark are leading

calls in Europe for decriminalisation, while Switzerland is conducting

clinical trials to facilitate medical use once again.

 

The Dutch government even fund pill-testing stations in an attempt to

protect the public from dangerous pills. It also gives them a knowledge of

what's 'down on the streets'. All the weak, fake and possibly contaminated

pills that wouldn't be accepted by knowledgeable Dutch users now get shipped

to Britain and the rest of Europe.

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just say 'know'

In Britain, Ecstasy remains a political hand grenade that nobody wants to be

near. Although 87% of the public support debate on drugs and the British

police have repeatedly recommended reclassification of Ecstasy to Class C,

the Westminster political machine is determined to 'Just say No'.

 

In the UK, the Green Party remain on the leading edge of political reform.

Its Drugs Group supplies Ecstasy testing kits, carries out pill testing at

large scale raves, and runs its own ongoing 'Just Say Know' drug awareness

campaign.

1987. A point in time when raves did not exist. Soft rock ruled the

airwaves. Nobody had considered that a thudding bassdrum, four subbass thuds

per bar, could consitute a foundation for popular music. Nobody had thought

to combine ecstasy with music. But on a small Spanish island called Ibiza,

frequented by hordes of hungry young Brits, ecstasy and music were being

combined - with surprising results.

It wasn't long before MDMA made it back to the mainland and exploded all

across the UK. No other country reacted quite like it. A heady cocktail of

greedy promoters, newspaper scare stories and out-of-control authorities all

helped to spread ecstasy use across the country like wild-fire.

" The drugs culture took a disturbing new turn at the weekend when the

biggest ever 'acid house' party was held ... As 11,000 youngsters descended

on a quiet airfield in the middle of the night, drug pushers were waiting to

tempt them with an evil selection of narcotics. "

The Daily Mail

 

Huge illegal raves sprang up in fields, industrial estates, and warehouses.

Tens of thousands of people attended the larger ones, convoys of cars

gridlocking motorways. Organisers and ravers frequently played cat-and-mouse

with police forces trying to find out the date and location of raves.

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a rave

(picture: mallo)

new laws

In 1990, the Government attempted to reduce Ecstasy use by shutting down the

raves and introducing a number of new laws. When the police clamped down on

illegal raves, nightclubs opened all over the UK to accommodate the desire

for the young to get loved up and dance.

Ecstasy was available in every town and city in the land.

 

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increased deaths

As the wide-open fields and spacious warehouses of the rave era were

replaced by small over-crowded clubs, the number of deaths from the use of

Ecstasy began to increase.

Some dodgy clubs turned off the taps and even turned on the heating to force

clubbers to buy bottled water. Most Ecstasy users were unaware of the

physical dangers of such environments.

 

leah betts

In November 1995, an 18-year-old girl became a tragic symbol for the growing

anti-drugs, anti-ecstasy campaign. Leah Betts died after taking ecstasy with

alcohol and drinking excessive amounts of water. The campaign that followed,

featuring the famous 'SORTED' poster, appeared on 1,500 billboards

nationwide.

 

Ecstasy use doubled within the year.

 

the first nibble

Before smileys. Before glow sticks and Mitsubishis. Before raves and techno,

ecstasy had a lengthy, respected, and legal career as a psychotherapeutic

drug.

 

MDMA had been chanced upon by the German pharmaceutical company Merck in

1912 (they also extracted cocaine from coca leaves around the same time). It

was patented but since it had no obvious use it soon disappeared off the

radar. It was not developed as a diet pill as is often rumoured.

 

 

healing the mind

In 1965, the American biochemist Alexander Shulgin rediscovered ecstasy

while searching for psychotherapeutic drugs.

Uniquely, Shulgin had a special license from the Federal Drugs

Administration to develop and synthesise psychedelic drugs. In his career

(documented in his book Phikal), he created over 300 substances including

2-CT-7 and 2CB.

 

After a dramatic experience with mescaline, he was personally convinced that

drugs could heal the mind, and was determined to prove it.

After creating a batch of MDMA, he took a nibble.

 

" I made it in my lab and nibbled. It gave me a pleasant lightness of spirit.

That's all. No psychedelic effects whatsoever. Just a distinct lightness of

mood. And an indication to get busy and do things that needed doing. "

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couples therapy

In the early 1980s, Ecstasy (known then as 'Empathy' or 'Adam') was legal

and available in bars across America, replacing cocaine as the middle class

drug of choice. It was also widely and legally used by a network of over

4,000 psychotherapists in the US, proving itself particularly effective for

couples therapy.

 

The public and unashamed use of such an obviously powerful drug could only

go on for so long.

 

banned

Ecstasy was banned in America on the 1st July 1985 but the publicity raised

by the crackdown helped spread illegal ecstasy coast to coast.

 

But the fuse had been lit and ecstasy was well on its way to becoming to the

biggest dance drug of the century.