Excuse me boys and girls, I forgot to set the tone for my last post. Can't have a history of cocaine lesson without some Eric Clapton.
The scope of cocaine use in medical products is well documented, and from what we know of the drug so far, all claims made by doctors and drug manufacturers in the late 1800s are somewhat legitimate.
By 1905 snorting coke became popular. By 1910 the first cases of nasal damage from snorting is found in medical journal and seen in hospitals. in 1912 the US Government reported 5,000 cocaine related fatalities in one year.
The tide began to turn during the great moral panic of the early 20th century. Blacks, Mexicans, and Filipinos were pissing on the moral fabric of America. Cocaine was being linked to derelicts, gamblers, prostitutes, pimps, burglars, blacks, and other low-class members of society. Some doctors and social scientists even went so far as to say that many interracial rapes were by cocaine- craving black men. (Side note: they also pinned the image of the mad black man onto marijuana as well. Cocaine makes some sense, but weed? Indoctrination and manipulation knows no bounds.)
The Harrison Narcotics Act was passed into law in December, 1914. The law regulated and taxed the production, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca leaves. Lets look at the events that led up to the passing of this legislation (brace yourself for a history lesson). I'll spare us all the explanation of the opiate condition in America.
The Journal of American Medicine published an editorial stating that the niggers from the south were using coke. Newspapers ran with this idea and started talking about how the coke caused the niggers to rape white women and could even improve their shooting accuracy. A scary thought indeed. If most of the rape cases in the south against our precious white women were by cocaine-crazed black men, we must regulate the drug to ensure the safety of our people. This is basically how they were able to outlaw marijuana too. Lies and propaganda. Linking a drug to a perceived threatening class or race often fueled American's perception on that drug. (It's not just America though. In the 19th century the Chinese regarded opium as a tool of Western domination, and used that in their anti-opium campaigns.)
Accoridng to the Harrison Act, cocaine was still illegal for distribution and use, but for registered companies and individuals it was as legal as discrimination and segregation. So while you could still get it prescribed by doctors, you wouldn't find any cocaine cigarettes at the local grocery. But the public fear of the drug had already been planted in the minds of the people. Cocaine use declined steadily through the 1930s, when the New York City Mayor's Committee on drug addiction declared that cocaine was no longer a societal problem, if it ever was.
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