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A Newsweek model demonstrates the sniffing of cocaine.
Cocaine this year's 'in' drug
by Elisabeth Coleman and Paul Brinkley-Rogers
Newsweek Feature Service
Heroin's a death trap, speed's a bummer,
LSD is for crazies, pot for children. So what are
the "conservatives" on the drug scene to do
with their idle hours these days?
Lately, may of them have turned to old
reliable, nonaddictive-and only occasionally
lethal-cocaine.
The technique for using this year's "in" drug
is almost as exotic as the kick that follows, and
as varied as the practitioners:
A university student crams the white powder
onto the long, carefully manicured nail of his
pinkie.
A ghetto pimp places the powder on a crisp
$50 bill, then rolls the bill into the shape of a
drinking straw.
A television actress puts the powder into a
tiny antique silver spoon.
ALL THREE RAISE the stuff to one nostril,
close the other and sniff deeply. What follows
are 15 or 20 minutes of very pleasurable
exhilaration and then several hours of
nervousness and depression similar to, but not
as bad as, the after-effects of an amphetamine
jag.
What also can follow are extreme irritability,
loss of the sense of heat and cold, tightening of
muscles, jerking or convulsions and finally
respiratory arrest and cardiovascular collapse.
The last two symptoms of course, are those
of a fatal overdose-relatively rare up to now
but increasingly likely because of the unknown
quantity of adulterants in most of the stuff
presently available.
"One of the biggest dangers with cocaine,"
cautions bearded, long-haired Dr. George Gay
of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic,
"is the narrow margin of safety between the
dose that will get you off and the dose that will
kill you."
STILL COCAINE HAS its advantages over
some drugs. It imparts no physical craving for
repeat doses (though it may become
psychologically addicting), it does not have to
be injected and some of its fans find it to be
sexually stimulating. Most importantly, it
doesn't disable the user from normal living as
heroin does.
"Coke doesn't burn out your brain the way
speed and LSD do," says one user. "It's a
power kick," says another. "I get the feeling
I'm completely in control of the situation-any
situation."
"The first time I took cocaine, I heard bells
ringing in my brain-clear and . pretty like
Christmas and Santa Claus," says a 46-year-old
user. "They say that only happens the first time
you take coke and I guess it's true. All these
years I've kept listening for those bells but I've
never heard them again."
Cocaine has always been an aristocrat among
drugs. Top people from all walks of life have
used it. Sigmund Freud had a bout with the
drug; so did Arthur Conan Doyle, and he liked it
so well he hooked Sherlock Holmes with it.
Dutch Schultz snorted the stuff in the '30s
before his more ambitious bank heists-and,
thus, gave the expression "Dutch courage" a
new vogue.
NOWADAYS IT IS the "with it" drug in
Hollywood and the music industry. In some
ghetto circles, coke is a status symbol. The
wealthiest pimps and drug dealers are on
cocaine and look down on the heroin-users as
their financial inferiors. A heavy coke man can
spend more than $100 a day on his drug; heroin
addicts can usually get by for $20 to $40 a day.
Most of the cocaine that comes into the U.S.
is derived from the leaves of the erythroxylon
coca tree which grows mostly in Columbia and
the Peruvian Andes; The drug moves
northward, through Mexico, is smuggled over
the border and-increasing in value all the
time-finally ends up in major cities all around
the country. U.S. customs seized $49.2 million
worth of cocaine last year-nearly three times
more than in the previous year.
Though many people seem able to use
cocaine moderately, a growing number of heavy
users are turning up. They can sometimes be
identified by chronically running noses.
Frequent sniffing strips away delicate nasal
membranes, and doctors have found patients in
whom the cartilage separating both sides of
the nasal opening has rotted out after a few
months on the drug.
ADDITIONAL DANGERS arise when
cocaine is cut by dealers with boric acid,
various anesthetics, amphetamines , quinine and,
most recently, arsenic. The additives are not
only dangerous in themselves, but leave the user
in the position of not knowing his own capacity
for cocaine. If by chance he has begun with
heavily cut mixtures, and then unknowingly
comes upon pure cocaine, the chances of an
overdose are vastly increased.
As Dave Van Ronk laments in his classic
song, "Cocaine Blues:":
"Cocaine 's for horses,
Not for men.
They tell me it'll kill me,
But they won 't say when. ..."
Interim . . .
Continued from page 1.
Mexico, Costa Rica and El
Salvador to study Marketing in
these countries, and an English
class will tour New Mexico and
Arizona on a study of native
American literature of the
Southwest.
On campus, classes for
credit being offered include
physics, elementary education,
architecture, textiles, clothing
and design, educational
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psychology, education and
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secondary education,
anthropology and social work.
In addition, a reading course
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PAGE 8
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1971
