July 5, 1986

Stop Drug Epidemic With Trade Barrier

The deaths by cocaine poisoning of two prominent athletes within eight days has finally convinced everyone that drug abuse has become a national epidemic.

Worse, no one knows how to stop it.

The present outbreak of cocaine addiction parallels that of a century ago when cocaine first became available in pure and cheap form. “Coke” spawned dozens of commercial products touting supposedly harmless stimulants. Every corner drug store dispensed cocaine without prescription.

An Atlanta pharmacist, John Pemberton, concocted a mixture of boiled cocaine leaves and wine which he registered and sold in 1885 as “French Wine Coca-Ideal Nerve and Tonic Stimulant.” The next year he substituted carbonated water for wine, added extract of kola nut for flavor and changed the name to Coca-Cola.

The Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Co. produced “coca cigarettes” as well as “coca inhalant.” The firm boasted within a year of commercial exploitation that there was “not a second-rate drug store” that didn’t have a supply-and that the company had “been obliged again and again to increase its capacity to produce cocaine so active is the demand.”

Doctors also were enthusiastic promoters of cocaine, believing the drug to be a medical miracle. Even Sigmund Freud jumped on the bandwagon and popularized the drug in Europe.

Dr. William Hammond, formerly U.S. surgeon general, declared that cocaine could “make the most dismal melancholic cheerful.” He assured the public that there was not “a single instance of a well pronounced cocaine habit, the patient being able to stop at any time he chose to do so.”

Cocaine was chosen as the official remedy by the Hay Fever Association. Coke parlors sprang up in the cities as fashionable hangouts for ladies enjoying a mid-afternoon pick-up.

PUBLIC REVERSAL

In those days, the U.S. had no laws controlling drugs or exaggerated advertising claims. Cocaine was slow to addict in the diluted form then known. It took 20 years for the public to discover that cocaine was just as dangerous and debilitating as opium, heroin and morphine. Drug abuse was as widespread by the turn of the century as it is now.

Restrictive laws were adopted starting in 1906. Coca-Cola processed its coca leaves to remove the addictive alkaloids and put in caffeine instead. Parke-Davis discontinued its funny cigarettes.

The public reversed its approval of cocaine. The drug disappeared from the scene except as Novocain for relieving the pain of dentistry.

Dr. David F. Musto, professor of psychiatry at Yale University, contends in a “Wall Street Journal” op-ed piece that cocaine’s disfavor grew from a combination of factors. Foremost was the direct observation of cocaine casualties.

In addition, rejection of coke came from a growing health movement that also was concerned with alcohol’s effects on society, fear of food additives, outrage over industrial carelessness with the environment, and a philosophy of exercise (bloomers) and healthy food (graham crackers and corn flakes.)

“Cocaine’s link with violent crime and paranoid mind-sets helped to associate the drug with social unrest. It was associated with prostitution and criminal gangs. As public anxiety about cocaine accelerated, it became as feared as it had once been hailed.”

PEER PRESSURE

Dr. Musto points out that peer pressure, so often given as the reason for the spread of drugs, can be just as potent a force against drug use, once the image of a drug’s effects has changed from miraculous to destructive.

“Cocaine use declined in America and did not surface again until a vivid public memory of its effects had been lost,” says Dr. Musto.

Recently suggestions have been made to legalize cocaine because its use is ubiquitous. The example of the first epidemic, however, suggests that its current widespread use may be the prelude to a vigorous public rejection of the drug. If so, legal controls are likely to facilitate cocaine’s demise.

“We can reasonably assume that as cocaine’s effects become more obvious-and ‘crack’ is speeding up this process - a similar outrage against cocaine will lead to reduced demand, more effective law enforcement, and a new public memory regarding cocaine.

“However, we have not yet found a method of developing an effective and lasting public antipathy toward cocaine without at the same time engaging in a certain amount of emotional overkill,” concludes Dr. Musto.

Dr. Musto’s observations are especially pertinent as they were made well before the deaths of Len Bias and Don Rogers. Already public revulsion is starting.

LOST GENERATION

The long-range outlook for eradication of cocaine addiction is optimistic. But a lost generation of Americans is not an acceptable consequence.

We must try some new methods of stopping the insidious drug traffic. Some recent suggestions include making drug production and distribution a hanging offence. Certainly the pushing of dope is equivalent to inch-by-inch murder and therefore well deserving of capital punishment.

Communist guerillas of South America openly boast that they produce cocaine for the American market as a form of “war against the imperialist aggressor.” Indeed, today’s drug traffic is a form of war justifying the use of U.S. military forces to combat drug smuggling.

It must be admitted, though, that these solutions only nibble at the edges of the illegal drug industry.

We suggest going to the heart of the matter by penalizing the governments that look away from drug production in their own countries. We have as much right to strike back against criminal governments as against criminal pushers.

Cocaine and heroin are lucrative trade to the nations that condone it. It is our right and duty to prohibit trade with such nations.

The American market is a magnet for corruption among illegal trade sources. Stop ALL trade, cut off access to the American market and criminal nations will quickly collapse. Drug trafficking then will become a cottage industry of low profit and little interest to greedy criminals.

By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist