Why Did Niemann Use Cocaine Essay

Cocaine’s main ingredient comes from the coca plant that grows in South American countries, like Peru and Ecuador. Many native tribes chewed on the leaves from this coca plant to get a boost of energy. To the natives, this was a common thing to do, in fact, they would even take “coca breaks,” where they would chew on the leaves. In the 1850s, Albert Niemann created cocaine by isolating the coca plant’s main ingredient and mixing it with other chemicals. Niemann thought he created a drug that would benefit the whole world, and for twenty to thirty years or so, the world thought so too, until the severe side effects were later discovered. Cocaine first entered America in 1863 as an unknown ingredient in a fancy wine, and this caused Americans to put cocaine in everything. Americans idealized cocaine and named it “the wonder drug” because they believed it can cure anything from tiredness and headaches to allergies and asthma. Americans even used cocaine to treat morphine addiction, which is interesting because many of them …show more content…
During this time, cocaine disappeared, but it was not gone for good. In the 1960s, cocaine abuse rose to a new all-time high. Crack, the crystalized form of cocaine, was developed during this time and many people switched over to crack because it was cheaper and a quicker high, but was even more addictive than cocaine. Soldiers from the Vietnam War made up the highest percentage of people who used heroin and cocaine, and President Nixon then called a War on Drugs. The government spent billions of dollars to try to keep cocaine out of America and on many different types of programs. The most notorious program was Nancy Raegan’s “Just Say NO” program helped spread public awareness about illegal drugs by informing young children about the consequences of