Cocaine Index

Number of Americans who report using cocaine at least once: 1 in 101

Year that the active chemical ingredient from coca leaves was first isolated: 18592

Year that cocaine-flavored “Vin Mariani” was introduced in France by pharmacist Angelo Mariani: 1865 3

Number of popes who sent letters to Mariani thanking him for the concoction: two 4

Year that Sigmund Freud published the essay “Über Coca”: 18845

Year that Coca-Cola was first sold in Atlanta: 1886 6

Year that cocaine was removed from Coca-Cola: 1903 7

Previous Vin Mariani–inspired drink sold by Coca-Cola founder John Styth Pemberton: Pemberton’s French Wine 8

A useful application of cocaine, according to Sigmund Freud: cure for morphine addiction 9

Names of various cocaine-based remedies at the turn of the century: Dr. Tucker’s Asthma Specific, Cola-Bola chewing gum, Ryno’s Hay Fever, Catarrh Remedy 10

First instance of cocaine use on film: Squeedunk (1909) 11

Number of Americans who say that Hollywood glamorizes drug use: 7 in 10 12

Fictional hero of the 1916 film The Mystery of the Leaping Fish starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr.: Coke Ennyday 13

Footnotes:

1 Office of Applied Studies, National Institute on Drug Abuse. National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, Table G.6: 11.5 percent.

2Durlacher, Julian. Cocaine: Its History and Lore. (London: Carlton. 2000), 10.

3 Ibid., 11-12.

4 Ibid., 13.

5 Ibid 15; Kevin Williamson, “The Tale of Two Halves,” The Scotsman, November 11, 2000.

6 Durlacher, Julian, Cocaine. (op. cit.) 13.

7 Ibid., ibid.

8 Ibid., ibid.

9 Ibid., 16.

10 Ibid., 20 and 38.

11 Ibid., 78.

12 The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. “74 Percent Say Drug War Being Lost: Interdiction and Incarceration Still Top Remedies” 21 March 2001 http://www.people-press.org: 68 percent agree that film and television “industry fails to shows dangers” of drugs.

13 Durlacher, Julian. (op. cit.).