Number of Americans who report using cocaine at least once: 1 in 10 1
Year that the active chemical ingredient from coca leaves was first isolated: 1859 2
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”: 1884 5
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 https://www.people-press.org: 68 percent agree that film and television “industry fails to shows dangers” of drugs.
13 Durlacher, Julian. (op. cit.).
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