Editing Cocaine (section)

== History ==

=== Discovery ===
[[File:Folha de coca.jpg|thumb|[[Coca leaf]] in [[Bolivia]]]]
[[Indigenous peoples of South America]] have chewed the leaves of ''[[coca|Erythroxylon coca]]''—a plant that contains vital nutrients as well as numerous [[alkaloids]], including cocaine—for over a thousand years.<ref name="isbn 978-3-906390-24-6">{{Cite book| vauthors = Hesse M |title=Alkaloids: Nature's Curse or Blessing?|page=304|publisher=Wiley-VCH|location=Weinheim|year=2002|isbn=978-3-906390-24-6}}</ref> The oldest evidence for cocaine used dates back to c. 8000 B.C.E in [[Peru]].<ref>{{Cite journal | vauthors = Dillehay TD, Rossen J, Ugent D, Karathanasis A, Vásquez V, Netherly PJ |date=2010 |title=Early Holocene coca chewing in northern Peru |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/early-holocene-coca-chewing-in-northern-peru/6452FDEFF4B27959A376256AFCFAEECE |journal=Antiquity |language=en |volume=84 |issue=326 |pages=939–953 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00067004 |issn=0003-598X}}</ref> The coca leaf was, and still is, chewed almost universally by some [[indigenous peoples|indigenous communities]]. The remains of coca leaves have been found with ancient Peruvian mummies, and pottery from the time period depicts humans with bulged cheeks, indicating the presence of something on which they are chewing.<ref name="mummies">{{Cite journal | vauthors = Altman AJ, Albert DM, Fournier GA | title = Cocaine's use in ophthalmology: our 100-year heritage | journal = Survey of Ophthalmology | volume = 29 | issue = 4 | pages = 300–6 | year = 1985 | pmid = 3885453 | doi = 10.1016/0039-6257(85)90153-5 }}</ref> There is also evidence that these cultures used a mixture of coca leaves and saliva as an anesthetic for the performance of [[Trepanning|trepanation]].<ref name="trepanning">{{Cite journal | vauthors = Gay GR, Inaba DS, Sheppard CW, Newmeyer JA | title = Cocaine: history, epidemiology, human pharmacology, and treatment. a perspective on a new debut for an old girl | journal = Clinical Toxicology | volume = 8 | issue = 2 | pages = 149–78 | year = 1975 | pmid = 1097168 | doi = 10.3109/15563657508988061 }}</ref>

When the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish arrived in South America]], the [[conquistador]]s at first banned coca as an "evil agent of devil". But after discovering that without the coca the locals were barely able to work, the conquistadors legalized and taxed the leaf, taking 10% off the value of each crop.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2006 <!--2006-03-02--> |title=Drug that spans the ages: The history of cocaine |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/drug-that-spans-the-ages-the-history-of-cocaine-468286.html |publisher=The Independent (UK) |location=London |access-date=30 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100228194626/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/drug-that-spans-the-ages-the-history-of-cocaine-468286.html |archive-date=28 February 2010 }}</ref> In 1569, Spanish botanist [[Nicolás Monardes]] described the indigenous peoples' practice of chewing a mixture of tobacco and coca leaves to induce "great contentment":
{{Blockquote|When they wished to make themselves drunk and out of judgment they chewed a mixture of tobacco and coca leaves which make them go as they were out of their wittes.<ref name="monardes">{{Cite book|title=Joyfull Newes out of the Newe Founde Worlde | vauthors = Monardes N, Frampton J |publisher=Alfred Knopf|year=1925|location=New York}}</ref>}}

In 1609, [[Military chaplain|Padre]] [[Blas Valera]] wrote:
{{Blockquote|Coca protects the body from many ailments, and our doctors use it in powdered form to reduce the swelling of wounds, to strengthen broken bones, to expel cold from the body or prevent it from entering, and to cure rotten wounds or sores that are full of maggots. And if it does so much for outward ailments, will not its singular virtue have even greater effect in the entrails of those who eat it?<ref>{{Cite web|title=InterAndean Institute of Coca Sciences|url=https://www.cienciadelacoca.org/CocaVega.html|website=www.cienciadelacoca.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230070400/https://cienciadelacoca.org/CocaVega.html|archive-date=30 December 2016|df=dmy-all}}</ref>}}

=== Isolation and naming ===
Although the stimulant and hunger-suppressant properties of coca leaves had been known for many centuries, the isolation of the cocaine [[alkaloid]] was not achieved until 1855. Various European scientists had attempted to isolate cocaine, but none had been successful for two reasons: the knowledge of chemistry required was insufficient, and conditions of sea-shipping from South America at the time  would often degrade the quality of the cocaine in the plant samples available to European chemists by the time they arrived.<ref name="Karch">{{cite book | vauthors = Karch SB | title=A Brief History of Cocaine | publisher=CRC Press | publication-place=Boca Raton, Fla | date=May 1998 | isbn=978-0-8493-4019-2}}</ref> However, by 1855, the German chemist [[Friedrich Gaedcke]] successfully isolated the cocaine alkaloid for the first time.<ref name="Luch">{{cite book | vauthors = Luch A | title=Molecular, Clinical and Environmental Toxicology | publisher=Springer Science & Business Media | publication-place=Basel Boston | date=3 April 2009 | isbn=978-3-7643-8336-7 | page=20 }}</ref> Gaedcke named the alkaloid "erythroxyline", and published a description in the journal ''[[Archiv der Pharmazie]].''<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Ueber das Erythroxylin, dargestellt aus den Blättern des in Südamerika cultivirten Strauches Erythroxylon Coca|vauthors = Gaedcke F|journal = Archiv der Pharmazie|volume = 132|issue = 2|pages = 141–150|year = 1855|doi = 10.1002/ardp.18551320208|s2cid = 86030231|url = https://zenodo.org/record/1424529|access-date = 3 September 2020|archive-date = 14 April 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210414225914/https://zenodo.org/record/1424529|url-status = live}}</ref>

In 1856, [[Friedrich Wöhler]] asked Dr. [[Carl Scherzer]], a scientist aboard the ''[[SMS Novara (1850)|Novara]]'' (an Austrian [[frigate]] sent by Emperor [[Franz Joseph of Austria|Franz Joseph]] to circle the globe), to bring him a large amount of coca leaves from South America. In 1859, the ship finished its travels and Wöhler received a trunk full of coca. Wöhler passed on the leaves to [[Albert Niemann (chemist)|Albert Niemann]], a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] student at the [[University of Göttingen]] in Germany, who then developed an improved purification process.<ref name=nie1860>{{Cite journal|volume = 153|issue = 2 and 3|pages = 129–155; 291–308|year = 1860|title = Ueber eine neue organische Base in den Cocablättern|vauthors = Niemann A|doi = 10.1002/ardp.18601530202|journal = Archiv der Pharmazie|s2cid = 98195820|url = https://zenodo.org/record/1424541|access-date = 30 June 2019|archive-date = 28 July 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200728162205/https://zenodo.org/record/1424541|url-status = live}}</ref>

Niemann described every step he took to isolate cocaine in his [[dissertation]] titled ''[[On a New Organic Base in the Coca Leaves|Über eine neue organische Base in den Cocablättern]]'' (''On a New Organic Base in the Coca Leaves''), which was published in 1860 and earned him his Ph.D. He wrote of the alkaloid's "colourless transparent prisms" and said that "Its solutions have an alkaline reaction, a bitter taste, promote the flow of saliva and leave a peculiar numbness, followed by a sense of cold when applied to the tongue." Niemann named the alkaloid "cocaine" from "coca" (from [[Quechua languages|Quechua]] "kúka") + [[affix|suffix]] "ine".<ref name=nie1860 /><ref>{{OEtymD|Cocaine}}</ref>

The first synthesis and elucidation of the structure of the cocaine molecule was by [[Richard Willstätter]] in 1898.<ref name="Humphrey2001" /> It was the first [[biomimetics|biomimetic]] synthesis of an organic structure recorded in academic chemical literature.<ref name="Singh2">{{Cite journal | vauthors = Singh S | title = Chemistry, design, and structure-activity relationship of cocaine antagonists | journal = Chemical Reviews | volume = 100 | issue = 3 | pages = 925–1024 | date = March 2000 | pmid = 11749256 | doi = 10.1021/cr9700538 | url = https://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/pdf/cocaineanalogs.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304193726/https://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/pdf/cocaineanalogs.pdf |archive-date = 4 March 2016 | url-status=live | quote = Page 970 (46th page of article) first, ninth, and tenth lines }}</ref><ref>(a) {{Cite journal | vauthors = Willstatter R | title = Synthese der Ecgoninsäure | trans-title = Synthesis of Tropine | language = de | journal = Liebigs Ann. | year = 1903 | volume = 326 | issue = 1–2 | page = 23 | doi = 10.1002/jlac.19033260105 }} (b) {{Cite journal | vauthors = Robinson RJ | title = LXIII. A synthesis of tropinone | journal = J. Chem. Soc., Trans. | year = 1917 | volume = 111 | pages = 762–768 | doi = 10.1039/CT9171100762 | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1429739 | access-date = 30 June 2019 | archive-date = 30 September 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200930155710/https://zenodo.org/record/1429739 | url-status = live }} (c) {{Cite journal | title = Die Synthese des Tropinons, Pseudopelletierins, Lobelanins und verwandter Alkaloide unter physiologischen Bedingungen | trans-title = The synthesis of tropinone, pseudopelletierin, lobelanin and related alkaloids under physiological conditions | language = de | vauthors = Schopf C, Lehman G | journal = Liebigs Ann. | year = 1935 | volume = 518 | pages = 1–37 | doi = 10.1002/jlac.19355180102 }}</ref> The synthesis started from [[tropinone]], a related natural product and took five steps.

Because of the former use of cocaine as a local anesthetic, a suffix "-caine" was later extracted and used to form names of synthetic [[local anesthetic]]s.

=== Medicalization ===
{{See also|Brompton cocktail}}

<!--yes, this is a word, go look it up in the OED ;)-->
[[File:Cocaine for kids.png|thumb|"Cocaine toothache drops", 1885 advertisement of cocaine for [[toothache|dental pain]] in children]]
[[File:Bottle for cocaine solution 2.jpg|thumb|Bottle of cocaine solution, Germany, circa 1915]]
With the discovery of this new alkaloid, Western medicine was quick to exploit the possible uses of this plant.

In 1879, Vassili von Anrep, of the [[University of Würzburg]], devised an experiment to demonstrate the analgesic properties of the newly discovered alkaloid. He prepared two separate jars, one containing a cocaine-salt solution, with the other containing merely saltwater. He then submerged a frog's legs into the two jars, one leg in the treatment and one in the control solution, and proceeded to stimulate the legs in several different ways. The leg that had been immersed in the cocaine solution reacted very differently from the leg that had been immersed in saltwater.<ref name="anrep_frog">{{Cite journal | vauthors = Yentis SM, Vlassakov KV | title = Vassily von Anrep, forgotten pioneer of regional anesthesia | journal = Anesthesiology | volume = 90 | issue = 3 | pages = 890–5 | date = March 1999 | pmid = 10078692 | doi = 10.1097/00000542-199903000-00033 }}</ref>

[[Karl Koller (ophthalmologist)|Karl Koller]] (a close associate of [[Sigmund Freud]], who would write about cocaine later) experimented with cocaine for [[ophthalmology|ophthalmic]] usage. In an infamous experiment in 1884, he experimented upon himself by applying a cocaine solution to his own eye and then pricking it with pins. His findings were presented to the Heidelberg Ophthalmological Society. Also in 1884, Jellinek demonstrated the effects of cocaine as a [[respiratory system]] anesthetic. In 1885, [[William Halsted]] demonstrated nerve-block anesthesia,<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Practical comments on the use and abuse of cocaine| vauthors = Halsted W |journal=New York Medical Journal|year=1885|pages=294–295|volume=42}}</ref> and [[James Leonard Corning]] demonstrated [[peridural]] anesthesia.<ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Corning JL |year=1885|journal=New York Medical Journal|title=An experimental study|volume=42|page=483}}</ref> 1898 saw [[Heinrich Quincke]] use cocaine for [[spinal anesthesia]].

=== Popularization ===
{{toomanyimages}}
In 1859, an Italian [[physician|doctor]], [[Paolo Mantegazza]], returned from [[Peru]], where he had witnessed first-hand the use of coca by the local indigenous peoples. He proceeded to experiment on himself and upon his return to [[Milan]], he wrote a paper in which he described the effects. In this paper, he declared coca and cocaine (at the time they were assumed to be the same) as being useful medicinally, in the treatment of "a furred tongue in the morning, [[flatulence]], and whitening of the teeth."

[[File:Vin_mariani_publicite156.jpg|thumb|[[Vin Mariani|Mariani tonic Wine]] - lithography by Jules Cheret, 1894]]
[[File:Mariani pope.jpg|thumb|[[Pope Leo XIII]] purportedly carried a hip flask of the coca-treated Vin Mariani with him, and awarded a [[Vatican City|Vatican]] [[gold medal]] to [[Angelo Mariani (chemist)|Angelo Mariani]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cocanaturally.com/ |title=Experience Vin Mariani today &#124; Grupo Mariani S.A |publisher=Cocanaturally.com |access-date=15 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208034115/https://cocanaturally.com/ |archive-date=8 February 2011 }}</ref>]]

A chemist named [[Angelo Mariani (chemist)|Angelo Mariani]] who read Mantegazza's paper became immediately intrigued with coca and its economic potential. In 1863, Mariani started marketing a [[wine]] called [[Vin Mariani]], which had been treated with coca leaves, to become [[coca wine]]. The [[ethanol]] in wine acted as a solvent and extracted the cocaine from the coca leaves, altering the drink's effect. It contained 6&nbsp;mg cocaine per ounce of wine, but Vin Mariani which was to be exported contained 7.2&nbsp;mg per ounce, to compete with the higher cocaine content of similar drinks in the United States.

In 1879 cocaine began to be used to treat [[morphine]] addiction. Cocaine was introduced into clinical use as a [[local anesthetic]] in Germany in 1884, about the same time as [[Sigmund Freud]] published his work ''Über Coca'',<ref>{{Cite book | vauthors = Freud S | veditors = Byck R | title=Cocaine Papers | publisher=Stonehill | location= | year=1975 | isbn=0-88373-010-3 }}</ref> in which he wrote that cocaine causes:<ref>{{Cite web|title=How a Young Sigmund Freud Researched & Got Addicted to Cocaine, the New "Miracle Drug," in 1894|url=https://www.openculture.com/2014/04/igmund-freud-researched-got-addicted-to-cocaine.html|website=Open Culture|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307204530/https://www.openculture.com/2014/04/igmund-freud-researched-got-addicted-to-cocaine.html|archive-date=7 March 2017}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which in no way differs from the normal euphoria of the healthy person. You perceive an increase of self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work. In other words, you are simply normal, and it is soon hard to believe you are under the influence of any drug. Long intensive physical work is performed without any fatigue. This result is enjoyed without any of the unpleasant after-effects that follow exhilaration brought about by [[alcoholic beverage]]s. No craving for the further use of cocaine appears after the first, or even after repeated taking of the drug.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sigmund Freud and Cocaine|url=https://cocaine.org/cokespoon.htm|website=cocaine.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119115241/https://cocaine.org/cokespoon.htm|archive-date=19 January 2017|df=dmy-all}}</ref>}}

By 1885 the U.S. manufacturer [[Parke-Davis]] sold coca-leaf cigarettes and [[cheroot]]s, a cocaine inhalant, a Coca Cordial, cocaine crystals, and cocaine solution for intravenous injection.<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Musto DF |title=America's First Cocaine Epidemic |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40257908 |journal=The Wilson Quarterly |pages=59–64 |date=1989 |volume=13 |issue=3 |pmid=11619697 |jstor=40257908 |access-date=12 July 2022 |archive-date=12 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220712020654/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40257908 |url-status=live }}</ref> The company promised that its cocaine products would "supply the place of food, make the coward brave, the silent eloquent and render the sufferer insensitive to pain."

[[File:Tri-state Drug sign, Route 80, Shreveport, Louisiana LCCN2017703923.tif|thumb|Tri-state Drug sign, Route 80, Shreveport, Louisiana]]

A "pinch of coca leaves" was included in [[John Pemberton|John Styth Pemberton]]'s original 1886 recipe for [[Coca-Cola]], though the company began using decocainized leaves in 1906 when the [[Pure Food and Drug Act]] was passed.

[[File:BEAUTY-COMFORT By Madame Falloppe (1904).jpg|left|thumb|In this 1904 [[advice column]] from ''[[the Tacoma Times]]'', "Madame [[Fallopian tube|Falloppe]]" recommended that [[cold sores]] be treated with a solution of [[borax]], cocaine, and [[morphine]].]]

By the late [[Victorian era]], cocaine use had appeared as a vice in [[literature]]. For example, it was injected by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s fictional [[Sherlock Holmes]], generally to offset the boredom he felt when he was not working on a case.

In early 20th-century [[Memphis, Tennessee]], cocaine was sold in neighborhood drugstores on [[Beale Street]], costing five or ten cents for a small boxful. [[Dockworker]]s along the [[Mississippi River]] used the drug as a stimulant, and white employers encouraged its use by black laborers.<ref name= barlow>{{Cite book | vauthors = Barlow W | title = Looking Up At Down: The Emergence of Blues Culture | url = https://archive.org/details/lookingupatdowne0000barl | url-access = registration | date = 1989 | publisher = Temple University Press | location = Philadelphia | isbn = 0-87722-583-4 | page = [https://archive.org/details/lookingupatdowne0000barl/page/207 207] }}</ref>

In 1909, [[Ernest Shackleton]] took "Forced March" brand cocaine tablets to [[Antarctica]], as did [[Captain Scott]] a year later on his ill-fated journey to the [[South Pole]].<ref name="dominic_streatfeild">{{Cite book | vauthors = Streatfeild D |title=Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography|publisher=Picador|year=2003|isbn=978-0-312-42226-4}}</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-07741, Berlin, "Koks Emil" der Kokain-Verkäufer.jpg|thumb|Women purchase cocaine capsules in Berlin, 1929]]

In the 1931 song "[[Minnie the Moocher]]", [[Cab Calloway]] heavily references cocaine use. He uses the phrase "kicking the gong around", slang for cocaine use; describes titular character Minnie as "tall and skinny;" and describes Smokey Joe as "cokey".<ref>{{Cite magazine|vauthors=White T|date=14 August 1993|title=Catchin' Cab: The Magic of Calloway|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6BEEAAAAMBAJ&q=billboard+minnie+the+moocher+1931&pg=PA3|magazine=Billboard|pages=3|access-date=13 January 2022|archive-date=8 July 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240708191810/https://books.google.com/books?id=6BEEAAAAMBAJ&q=billboard+minnie+the+moocher+1931&pg=PA3#v=snippet&q=billboard%20minnie%20the%20moocher%201931&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> In the 1932 comedy musical film ''[[The Big Broadcast]]'', Cab Calloway performs the song with his orchestra and mimes snorting cocaine in between verses.<ref>{{Cite AV media|title=The Big Broadcast (1932)|type=Full Movie|date=8 January 2021|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCC4zlrC5rQ&t=1h20m30s|time=1:20:29|via=[[YouTube]]|access-date=13 January 2022|archive-date=13 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220113093159/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCC4zlrC5rQ&t=1h20m30s|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the mid-1940s, amidst World War II, cocaine was considered for inclusion as an ingredient of a future generation of 'pep pills' for the German military, code named [[D-IX]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://amphetamines.com/nazidrug.html |title=Jeevan Vasagar: cocaine-based "wonder drug" tested on concentration camp inmates |publisher=Amphetamines.com |date=19 November 2002 |access-date=15 January 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110227003229/https://www.amphetamines.com/nazidrug.html |archive-date=27 February 2011 }}</ref>

[[File:Cocaine_Energy_Drink_(7983571911).jpg|thumb|150px|Cocaine Energy Drink]]
While the caffeinated energy drink [[Cocaine (drink)|Cocaine]] (also known as Cocaine Energy Supplement) contained no actual cocaine, the product launch attracted criticism from lawmakers and anti-drug organizations, who felt that Cocaine glamorized drug usage to children.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/latest-energy-drink-gets-some-bad-buzz/|title=Latest energy drink gets some bad buzz|last=Campbell|first=Carol Ann|date=2006-09-22|website=The Seattle Times|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-05}}</ref>

In modern popular culture, references to cocaine are common. The drug has a glamorous image associated with the [[upper class]], famous and powerful, and is said to make users "feel rich and beautiful".<ref name=nyt1>{{Cite news | vauthors = Ryzik M |title=Cocaine: Hidden in Plain Sight |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/fashion/10cocaine.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=18 May 2017 |date=10 June 2007 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811060445/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/fashion/10cocaine.html |archive-date=11 August 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Buyers – A Social History of America's Most Popular Drugs | work = FRONTLINE |url= https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/buyers/socialhistory.html |publisher=PBS |access-date=18 May 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170514022136/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/buyers/socialhistory.html |archive-date=14 May 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | vauthors = Brisbane FL, Womble M | title = Treatment of Black Alcoholics|publisher=Psychology Press | isbn = 978-0-86656-403-8 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DA7SmDh-X5cC&pg=PA167 | access-date = 18 May 2017 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170910234911/https://books.google.com/books?id=DA7SmDh-X5cC&pg=PA167 | archive-date=10 September 2017| year = 1985 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| vauthors = Waldorf D, Reinarman C, Murphy S |title=Cocaine Changes: The Experience of Using and Quitting|publisher=Temple University Press|isbn=978-1-56639-013-2|url=https://archive.org/details/cocainechangesex00wald|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/cocainechangesex00wald/page/95 95]|access-date=18 May 2017|date=June 1992}}</ref> In addition the pace of modern society − such as in finance − gives many the incentive to make use of the drug.<ref name=nyt1 />

=== Modern usage ===
{{also|Cocaine boom|2023 White House cocaine incident}}
[[File:Cocainaestudiante.jpg|thumb|Student dividing cocaine]]

In many countries, cocaine is a popular [[recreational drug]]. Cocaine use is prevalent across all [[socioeconomic]] strata, including age, demographics, economic, social, political, religious, and livelihood.<ref name="Current">{{Cite book |vauthors = Current JD | chapter = Cocaine |title=Pharmacology for Anesthetists | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Du2bfrO9FwC&pg=PA27 | page = 27 }}</ref>

In the United States, the development of [[crack cocaine|"crack" cocaine]] introduced the substance to a generally poorer inner-city market. The use of the powder form has stayed relatively constant, experiencing a new height of use across the 1980s and 1990s in the U.S.<ref name="Kozel">{{cite book | vauthors = Kozel NJ, Adams EH | title=Cocaine Use in America | publisher=DIANE Publishing | date=July 1996 | isbn=978-0-7881-2968-1}}</ref><ref name="r084">{{cite book | vauthors = Spillane JF | title=Cocaine | publisher=JHU Press | publication-place=Baltimore, MD | date=11 January 2000 | isbn=978-0-8018-6230-4}}</ref> However, from 2006 to 2010 cocaine use in the US declined by roughly half before again rising once again from 2017 onwards.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/mixed-messages-is-cocaine-consumption-in-the-u-s-going-up-or-down/ |title=Mixed messages: Is cocaine consumption in the U.S. going up or down? |vauthors=Kilmer B |date=2017 |publisher=Brookings |access-date=29 June 2024 |archive-date=29 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240629195048/https://www.brookings.edu/articles/mixed-messages-is-cocaine-consumption-in-the-u-s-going-up-or-down/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In the UK, cocaine use increased significantly between the 1990s and late 2000s, with a similar high consumption in some other European countries, including Spain.<ref name="HOC">{{cite book |  author = Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee | title=The cocaine trade | publisher=The Stationery Office | date=3 March 2010 | isbn=978-0-215-54425-4 | page=22}}</ref>

The estimated U.S. cocaine market exceeded US$70 billion in street value for the year 2005, exceeding revenues by corporations such as [[Starbucks]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.applesanity.com/fetish/blow/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080617113902/https://www.applesanity.com/fetish/blow/ |archive-date=17 June 2008 |title=Apple Sanity – Fetish – Blow: War on Drugs VS. Cocaine |publisher=Applesanity.com |date=17 June 2008 |access-date=13 November 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.havocscope.com/tag/cocaine/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111114403/https://www.havocscope.com/tag/cocaine/ |archive-date=11 November 2012 |title=Cocaine Market |date=28 April 2008 |publisher=Havocscope.com |access-date=9 March 2010}}</ref> Cocaine's status as a [[club drug]] shows its immense popularity among the "party crowd".<ref name="Current" />

In 1995 the [[World Health Organization]] (WHO) and the [[United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute]] (UNICRI) announced in a press release the publication of the results of the largest global study on cocaine use ever undertaken. An American representative in the [[World Health Assembly]] banned the publication of the study, because it seemed to make a case for the positive uses of cocaine. An excerpt of the report strongly conflicted with accepted paradigms, for example, "that occasional cocaine use does not typically lead to severe or even minor physical or social problems." In the sixth meeting of the B committee, the US representative threatened that "If World Health Organization activities relating to drugs failed to reinforce proven drug control approaches, funds for the relevant programs should be curtailed". This led to the decision to discontinue publication. A part of the study was recuperated and published in 2010, including profiles of cocaine use in 20 countries, but are unavailable {{As of|2015|lc=y}}.<ref name=TNI>{{Cite web|title=The WHO Cocaine Project|author=WHO/UNICRI|url=https://www.tni.org/article/who-cocaine-project|publisher=Transnational Institute|date=4 February 2010|access-date=8 June 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120809073614/https://www.tni.org/article/who-cocaine-project|archive-date=9 August 2012}}</ref>

In October 2010 it was reported that the use of cocaine in Australia has doubled since monitoring began in 2003.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Cocaine use doubles in a decade |url=https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/cocaine-use-doubles-in-a-decade-20101015-16mli.html |work=Sydney Morning Herald |date=15 October 2010 |access-date=19 October 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101018051009/https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/cocaine-use-doubles-in-a-decade-20101015-16mli.html |archive-date=18 October 2010 }}</ref>