Cocaine - Are There Any Medical Reasons for Taking This Substance?

Are There Any Medical Reasons for Taking This Substance?

The age-old tradition of chewing coca leaves continues to be part of the daily culture of South American Indians. This practice has often been compared to the American coffee break. Coca leaves are chewed to increase energy and reduce feelings of nausea in users.

After 1860, cocaine was being processed into powder and shipped to the United States and Europe. When mixed with water and taken by mouth in its liquid form, it was considered a common nonprescription remedy for hay fever, children's toothaches, asthma, and nausea. Snorting and injecting cocaine were somewhat less popular methods of ingestion through the early 1900s.

Only Acceptable Use Is as an Anesthetic

As more and more people used cocaine, it became increasingly obvious that the drug was harmful. Users were getting addicted. In 1914, the Harrison Narcotic Act banned the use of cocaine in the United States, except when used by a physician as a local anestheticA painkiller applied directly to the skin or mucus membranes..

Cocaine was the first local, or topically applied, anesthetic ever used. In 1884, physician Carl Koller (1857–1944) started using the drug as a topical anesthetic for eye surgery. Soon it was being used by dentists and veterinarians to deaden pain at the site of surgical incisions. But it was William S. Halsted, the father of modern surgery, who found that cocaine injected under the skin (rather than just rubbed on top of the skin) made an even more effective local anesthetic for surgery. When used in this way, cocaine numbs the site of application almost immediately and lessens bleeding.

Did You Know?

How much do you know about cocaine? Did you know that:

  • In 2003, an estimated 2.3 million Americans were current cocaine users. That is nearly 1 percent of the U.S. population. One out of every four of those 2.3 million users was considered "hooked" or dependent on cocaine.
  • Research reveals that the coca plant produces cocaine to kill insects that prey on it.
  • Cocaine is the second most commonly used illicit drug in the United States, according to Heather Lehr Wagner's 2003 book Cocaine. About 10 percent of Americans over the age of 12 have tried cocaine at least once in their lifetimes. About 2 percent have tried crack. And nearly 1 percent of all Americans are currently using cocaine.

Typically, a 1–4 percent cocaine solution is used for surgical purposes. This highly diluted solution does not have a psychoactive or changing effect on the brain. While cocaine is still used for ear, nose, and throat surgery, another drug called lidocaine has replaced it as the most widely used local anesthetic of modern times.