This paper will be describing the history, celebrity use, effects, and research of the drug, Cocaine. The scientific name of the street drug is cocaine hydrochloride, because there is a salt molecule bound to the cocaine alkaline molecule. Most cocaine that is purchased on the street is hardly pure, and can vary as much as 15% to 90% actual cocaine. Those who sell these illegal drugs use the practice of cutting the pure substance with sugars and even powdered milk. Everyday 5000 Americans try cocaine for their 1st time every day. Also known as "White Gold," cocaine is five times more valuable than normal gold. The process to leach out the cocaine alkaloid from the coca leaves is long and drawn out. With a solution of sulfuric acid, kerosene, ammonia, and various other solvents, the leaves are soaked till they give up the drug. To get this potent drug across the border of the United States, it is concealed in shoes, dolls, flashlight batteries, against records, and pressed into clay bowls that are 75% or more of cocaine.
             There are few drugs of abuse that have received as much public attention as cocaine. But cocaine is by no means a new drug. Cocaine has been used in the New World since before the Spanish Conquest; indeed, it has been in use for an estimated 3000 years. Originating from Peru, the Inca Indians have been using the leaves of the coca bush as a stimulant for working in the high altitude of the Andes Mountains. In both Bolivia and Peru, these leaves are still chewed.
             In 1862, a German scientist by the name of Albert Neimann located the active ingredient in the coca leaves. The Latin name for the coca plant is Erythoxylum coca. He found that the substance produced an anesthetic effect, by putting some on his tongue, and consequently, having it go numb.
             Although cocaine was highly regarded in the 1880's and the 1890's, by the turn of the century its potential for abuse was beginning to be realized....