Da Lazy Scholar: The Cocaine mummies

[Armonica_Templar]

Cocaine

Cocaine, also known as coke, is a strong stimulant mostly used as a recreational drug.[10] It is commonly snorted, inhaled as smoke, or as a solution injected into a vein.[9] Mental effects may include loss of contact with reality, an intense feeling of happiness, or agitation.[9] Physical symptoms may include a fast heart rate, sweating, and large pupils.[9] High doses can result in very high blood pressure or body temperature.[11] Effects begin within seconds to minutes of use and last between five and ninety minutes.[9] Cocaine has a small number of accepted medical uses such as numbing and decreasing bleeding during nasal surgery.[12]


Cocaine is addictive due to its effect on the reward pathway in the brain.[10] After a short period of use, there is a high risk that dependence will occur.[10] Its use also increases the risk of stroke, myocardial infarction, lung problems in those who smoke it, blood infections, and sudden cardiac death.[10][13] Cocaine sold on the street is commonly mixed with local anesthetics, cornstarch, quinine, or sugar, which can result in additional toxicity.[14] Following repeated doses a person may have decreased ability to feel pleasureand be very physically tired.[10]

Cocaine acts by inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.[10] This results in greater concentrations of these three neurotransmitters in the brain.[10] It can easily cross the blood–brain barrier and may lead to the breakdown of the barrier.[15][16] Cocaine is a naturally occurring substance found in the coca plant which are mostly grown in South America.[9] In 2013, 419 kilograms were produced legally.[17] It is estimated that the illegal market for cocaine is 100 to 500 billion USD each year.[10] With further processing crack cocaine can be produced from cocaine.[10]

After cannabis, cocaine is the most frequently used illegal drug globally.[18] Between 14 and 21 million people use the drug each year.[10] Use is highest in North America followed by Europe and South America.[10] Between one and three percent of people in the developed world have used cocaine at some point in their life.[10] In 2013 cocaine use directly resulted in 4,300 deaths, up from 2,400 in 1990.[19] The leaves of the coca plant have been used by Peruvians since ancient times.[14] Cocaine was first isolated from the leaves in 1860.[10] Since 1961 the international Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs has required countries to make recreational use of cocaine a crime.[20]

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Discovery

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Coca leaf in Bolivia

For over a thousand years South American indigenous peoples have chewed the leaves of Erythroxylon coca, a plant that contains vital nutrients as well as numerous alkaloids, including cocaine. The coca leaf was, and still is, chewed almost universally by some indigenous communities. The remains of coca leaves have been found with ancient Peruvian mummies, and pottery from the time period depicts humans with bulged cheeks, indicating the presence of something on which they are chewing.[99] There is also evidence that these cultures used a mixture of coca leaves and saliva as an anesthetic for the performance of trepanation.[100]

When the Spanish arrived in South America, most at first ignored aboriginal claims that the leaf gave them strength and energy, and declared the practice of chewing it the work of the Devil.[101] But after discovering that these claims were true, they legalized and taxed the leaf, taking 10% off the value of each crop.[102] In 1569, Nicolás Monardes described the indigenous peoples' practice of chewing a mixture of tobacco and coca leaves to induce "great contentment":

When they wished to make themselves drunk and out of judgment they chewed a mixture of tobacco and coca leaves which make them go as they were out of their wittes.[103]

In 1609, Padre Blas Valera wrote:

Coca protects the body from many ailments, and our doctors use it in powdered form to reduce the swelling of wounds, to strengthen broken bones, to expel cold from the body or prevent it from entering, and to cure rotten wounds or sores that are full of maggots. And if it does so much for outward ailments, will not its singular virtue have even greater effect in the entrails of those who eat it?[104]

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Coca

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca#p-search]
This article is about the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae. For the drug, see Cocaine. For other uses, see Coca (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Coca-Cola or cocoa.
Coca

Erythroxylum novogranatense var. novogranatenseleaves and berries
Product name
Coca
Source plant(s)
Erythroxylum coca var. coca, Erythroxylum coca var. ipadu, Erythroxylum novogranatense var. novogranatense, Erythroxylum novogranatense var. truxillense
Part(s) of plant
Leaf
Geographic origin
Andes[1]
Active ingredients
Cocaine, benzoylecgonine, ecgonine, others
Legal status

• AU: S9 (Prohibited)
  
• CA: Schedule I
  
• UK: Class A
  
• US: Schedule II
  
• UN: Narcotic Schedule I
  
• Controlled unless decocainized
  

Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America.
The plant is grown as a cash crop in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, even in areas where its cultivation is unlawful.[2] There are some reports that the plant is being cultivated in the south of Mexico as a cash crop and an alternative to smuggling its recreational product cocaine.[3] It also plays a role in many traditional Andean cultures as well as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (see Traditional uses).
Coca is known throughout the world for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. The alkaloid content of coca leaves is relatively low, between 0.25% and 0.77%.[4] The native people use it for a stimulant, like coffee, an energy source. Coca leaf extract had been used in Coca-Cola products since 1885, with cocaine being completely eliminated from the products in or around 1903.[5][6] Extraction of cocaine from coca requires several solvents and a chemical process known as an acid / base extraction, which can fairly easily extract the alkaloids from the plant.

Contents
  [hide] 

• 1Description
  
• 2Species and evolution
  • 2.1Herbicide resistant varieties
    
• 3Cultivation
  
• 4Pharmacological aspects
  
• 5History
  
• 6Traditional uses
  • 6.1Medicine
    
  • 6.2Nutrition
    
  • 6.3Religion
    
  • 6.4Traditional preparation
    • 6.4.1Chew
      
    • 6.4.2Tea
      
• 7Commercial and industrial uses
  • 7.1New markets
    
• 8Literary references
  
• 9International prohibition of coca leaf
  
• 10Legal status
  • 10.1Netherlands
    
  • 10.2United States
    
  • 10.3Australia
    
• 11See also
  
• 12References
  
• 13External links
  

Description[edit]
The coca plant resembles a blackthorn bush, and grows to a height of 2 to 3 metres (7 to 10 feet). The branches are straight, and the leaves are thin, opaque, oval, and taper at the extremities. A marked characteristic of the leaf is an areolated portion bounded by two longitudinal curved lines, one line on each side of the midrib, and more conspicuous on the under face of the leaf.

The flowers are small, and disposed in clusters on short stalks; the corolla is composed of five yellowish-white petals, the anthers are heart-shaped, and the pistil consists of three carpels united to form a three-chambered ovary. The flowers mature into red berries.
The leaves are sometimes eaten by the larvae of the moth Eloria noyesi.

Species and evolution[edit]
There are two species of cultivated coca, each with two varieties:

• Erythroxylum coca
  • Erythroxylum coca var. coca (Bolivian or Huánuco Coca) – well adapted to the eastern Andes of Peru and Bolivia, an area of humid, tropical, montane forest.
    
  • Erythroxylum coca var. ipadu (Amazonian Coca) – cultivated in the lowland Amazon Basin in Peru and Colombia.
    
  
  
• Erythroxylum novogranatense
  • Erythroxylum novogranatense var. novogranatense (Colombian Coca) – a highland variety that is utilized in lowland areas. It is cultivated in drier regions found in Colombia. However, E. novogranatense is very adaptable to varying ecological conditions. The leaves have parallel lines on either side of the central vein.
    
  • Erythroxylum novogranatense var. truxillense (Trujillo Coca) – grown primarily in Peru and Colombia. the leaves of E. novogranatense var. truxillense does not have parallel lines on either side of the central vein like all other varieties.
    

[*]All four of the cultivated cocas were domesticated in pre-Columbian times and are more closely related to each other than to any other species.[2]

There are two main theories relating to the evolution of the cultivated cocas. The first (put forth by Plowman[7] and Bohm[8]) suggests that Erythroxylum coca var. coca is ancestral, while Erythroxylum novogranatense var. truxillense is derived from it to be drought tolerant, and Erythroxylum novogranatense var. novogranatense derived from Erythroxylum novogranatense var. truxillense.

Recent research based on genetic evidence (Johnson et al. in 2005,[9] Emche et al. in 2011,[10] and Islam 2011[11]) does not support this linear evolution and instead suggests a second domestication event as the origin of the Erythroxylum novogranatense varieties. There may be a common, but undiscovered ancestor.[10]

Wild populations of Erythroxylum coca var. coca are found in the eastern Andes; the other 3 taxa are only known as cultivated plants.

The two subspecies of Erythroxylum coca are almost indistinguishable phenotypically. Erythroxylum novogranatense var. novogranatense and Erythroxylum novogranatense var. truxillense are phenotypically similar, but morphologically distinguishable. Under the older Cronquist system of classifying flowering plants, this was placed in an order Linales; more modern systems place it in the order Malpighiales.

[*]


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Traces of coca have been found in mummies dating 3000 years back.[27] Other evidence dates the communal chewing of coca with lime 8000 years back.[28] Beginning with the Valdivian culture, circa 3000 BC, there is an unbroken record of coca leaf consumption by succeeding cultural groups on the coast of Ecuador until European arrival as shown in their ceramic sculpture and abundant caleros or lime pots. Coca consumption among the North Coast Peruvian tribes begins around 2000 BC as evidenced by the caleros found by Junius Bird at Huaca Prieta and the emergence of dedicated lime containers in the Jetetepeque river valley. Extensive archaeological evidence for the chewing of coca leaves dates back at least to the 6th century AD Moche period, and the subsequent Inca period, based on mummies found with a supply of coca leaves, pottery depicting the characteristic cheek bulge of a coca chewer, spatulas for extracting alkali and figured bags for coca leaves and lime made from precious metals, and gold representations of coca in special gardens of the Inca in Cuzco.[29][30]


Coca chewing may originally have been limited to the eastern Andes before its introduction to the Inca. As the plant was viewed as having a divine origin, its cultivation became subject to a state monopoly and its use restricted to nobles and a few favored classes (court orators, couriers, favored public workers, and the army) by the rule of the Topa Inca (1471–1493). As the Incan empire declined, the leaf became more widely available. After some deliberation, Philip II of Spain issued a decree recognizing the drug as essential to the well-being of the Andean Indians but urging missionaries to end its religious use. The Spanish are believed to have effectively encouraged use of coca by an increasing majority of the population to increase their labor output and tolerance for starvation, but it is not clear that this was planned deliberately.[citation needed]

Coca was first introduced to Europe in the 16th century, but did not become popular until the mid-19th century, with the publication of an influential paper by Dr. Paolo Mantegazza praising its stimulating effects on cognition. This led to invention of coca wine and the first production of pure cocaine. Coca wine (of which Vin Mariani was the best-known brand) and other coca-containing preparations were widely sold as patent medicines and tonics, with claims of a wide variety of health benefits. The original version of Coca-Cola was among these. These products became illegal in most countries outside of South America in the early 20th century, after the addictive nature of cocaine was widely recognized. In 1859, Albert Niemann of the University of Göttingen became the first person to isolate the chief alkaloid of coca, which he named "cocaine".[31]

In the early 20th century, the Dutch colony of Java became a leading exporter of coca leaf. By 1912 shipments to Amsterdam, where the leaves were processed into cocaine, reached 1000 tons, overtaking the Peruvian export market. Apart from the years of the First World War, Java remained a greater exporter of coca than Peru until the end of the 1920s.[32] Other colonial powers also tried to grow coca (including the British in India), but with the exception of the Japanese in Formosa, these were relatively unsuccessful.[32]

In recent times (2006), the governments of several South American countries, such as Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela, have defended and championed the traditional use of coca, as well as the modern uses of the leaf and its extracts in household products such as teas and toothpaste. The coca plant was also the inspiration for Bolivia's Coca Museum.

[*]

South America origin