The First Cycle: Use (3000 B.C.-1860 A.D.)

Historically, South American natives administered coca orally and topically and ingested it by smoking in low, albeit effective, dosages. When used orally, the leaves were chewed, sucked, and swallowed. Studies involving contemporary coca chewers suggest that this pattern of administration results in an average daily ingestion of 200 to 500 milligrams (mg) of cocaine with plasma cocaine levels similar to those achieved from intranasal administration (Holmstedt et al., 1979; Paly et al., 1980). Quids of partially chewed leaves were used as topical local anesthetics for trephining operations (Hrdlicka, 1939) and to relieve posttrephining distress (Moodie, 1923). The juice of chewed leaves is still used to treat eye and throat irritations (Grinspoon and Bakalar, 1976), and the dosages necessary for effective local anesthesia could be as low as just a few milligrams (Martindale, 1982). The sacrificial burning and smoking of coca leaves and seeds in magico-religious practices, as well as for the relief of upper respiratory problems, probably delivered less than 25 mg of cocaine (Siegel, 1982).

There is little evidence that these patterns and dosages were associated with abuse or toxicity. However, because coca use was considered a habit connected with idolatrous Indians of poor health, it was continually condemned starting in 1567 (Mortimer, 1901). This view of coca as "wicked" and with "no true virtue" was expressed throughout the first cycle and set the stage for future treatment of the habit to include religious and moral education.

The Second Cycle: Abuse (1860-1914)

Coca was introduced to Europe by the reports of sixteenth-century explorers, seventeenth-century chroniclers, eighteenth-century naturalists, and nineteenth-century botanists (Mortimer, 1901). After Mantegazza's 1857 and 1859 essays on the virtues of coca, medical and nonmedical coca products appeared, and European use initially followed the same low-dose patterns observed in South America. The first coca wines and tonics were introduced in France in the 1860s and eventually were advertised throughout the rest of the world. These promotions, lacking medical or scientific support, encouraged frequent use of escalating doses, a pattern that inevitably led to a new cycle of cocaine abuse. Recent analysis of these preparations reveals that changing dose regimens were inextricably tied to this abuse (Siegel, 1985a).

An analysis of representative pharmaceutical bottles and formulas in the author's collection reveals that these tonics and extracts contained approximately 3 to 160 mg of cocaine per dosage unit. The coca wines and related alcoholic beverages contained approximately 35 to 70 mg of cocaine per dosage unit (glass). Some, like Vin Mariani, were concentrations of 2 ounces of leaves in 18-ounce bottles of wine. The coca leaves themselves were not standardized for cocaine content and may have varied from less than 0.01 percent to 1.5 percent cocaine (Hanna, 1970; Novak et al., 1984; Plowman and Rivier, 1983; Rivier, 1981). The leaves used in manufacturing wines and tonics averaged 0.65 percent, a concentration remarkably similar to assays of contemporary cultivated coca leaves (Coca wines, 1886; Plowman and Rivier, 1983; Rusby, 1888). Mariani's Elixir was three times more concentrated than the wine, and his coca tea was eight times more concentrated (Mariani, 1888, 1892). Nonetheless, recommended doses of these preparations would have resulted in daily ingestion of little more than 450 mg of cocaine. Most wines available in the 1890s contained approximately 10 mg of cocaine per fluid ounce, and recommended doses were from one-half a wine glass (2 ounces, or 20 mg) to a full wine glass (4 ounces, or 40 mg) per administration (Coca wines, 1886). French Wine Coca, the original name for Coca-Cola, was an imitation of these French coca wines and reportedly contained less than one-half ounce of coca leaves per gallon.²

Initially, physicians, pharmacists, and chemists recommended a pattern of use for drinking coca products that would have resulted in less daily intake of cocaine than from chewing the leaves but with the same stimulating properties. For example, in the first commercial book advertising coca and its products,³ Chevrier (1868) claimed a wide variety of therapeutic applications for coca preparations that were equal to the chewed leaves but did not have to be used as often. Indeed, most coca fluid extracts and wines, the most popular preparations recommended by physicians (Mortimer, 1901), were formulated on the basis of their equivalence in leaves.

The second book on the subject, Erythroxylon Coca: A Treatise on Brain Exhaustion as the Cause of Disease, by British physician William Tibbles (1877), recommended the use of coca for a variety of physical and mental diseases. The third book, La Coca du Perou, was the first in a long series of publications by chemist Angelo Mariani (1878) that expanded on the therapeutic applications of his commercial line of coca products. The fourth book, published by New York physician W.S. Searle (1881), endorsed the medical use of coca for all problems of life and as an alternative to tobacco, tea, coffee, and wine. The coca dosage regimens recommended by Tibbles, Searle, and their colleagues would have resulted in daily ingestion of no more than 65 to 160 mg of cocaine. Coca-Cola, promoted as a "Brain Tonic" for exhaustion, went through several changes in its formula (Louis and Yazijian, 1980) and from the 1890s to 1903 contained approximately 60 mg of cocaine per 8-ounce serving.⁴ By the time the fifth book on coca was published (Thudichum, 1885), it was an accepted medical fact that coca, and its alkaloid cocaine, had the power to relieve suffering.

Concomitant with the growing number of new coca products on the market, advertisements promoted their use for a wide variety of nonmedical purposes. However, cocaine itself was widely available at this time, and the dosage regimens recommended for use of cocaine products by Tibbles, Merck (1885), and Martindale (1886) would have resulted in daily ingestion of as much as 810 to 1,620 mg of cocaine, or approximately three times the cocaine intake of the coca chewer. Indeed, whereas coca products and dosages were treated as roughly equivalent to the chewing of coca leaves, cocaine was advertised as 200 times stronger than coca, 1 grain of cocaine being the equivalent of 200 grains of coca leaves (Hammond, 1887).

Yet little adjustment was made for this dose consideration. In fact, the convenience of cocaine prompted even the most conservative of physicians to apply its use to virtually all medical and nonmedical complaints. Using the typical medical hyperbole of the times, Tibbles promoted a cocaine "Child Restorer" as a universal remedy for diseases of children, a "Brain Feeder" in all cases where an individual desired more energy, and a "Compound Essence of Cocaine" for all remaining problems of life.

Cocaine became available in a wide variety of base and salt preparations, some in combination with other agents including agonists like atropine and physostigmine and narcotic-analgesics like morphine. The increased use of cocaine was further complicated by the increasing popularity of the highly efficient intranasal and injection routes of administration. Inhalant and intranasal doses of 65 mg were commonly used, and injection doses as high as 32 to 1,200 mg were employed. Some asthma and hay fever snuffs were pure cocaine, and users were instructed to take them as needed (Ashley, 1975). Recommended doses through smoking of coca cigarettes and cigars could have been as high as 225 mg per day (Parke, Davis & Co., 1885). By 1894 cocaine was being used topically on the penis as well as rectally and vaginally (Martindale, 1894).

It is not surprising that the widespread availability of cocaine marked the decline of coca as a medicine. But the parallel increases in cocaine dosages, routes of administration, and medical and nonmedical abuses just as quickly arrested cocaine's development as a therapeutic agent. Daily dosages of cocaine "addicts" sometimes reached more than 12 grams (Meyers, 1902), doses almost impossible to achieve with coca products and ones that would not be seen again until the discovery of smoking cocaine free base in the 1970s.

As the nonmedical use of cocaine and other narcotics escalated, state legislatures and Congress increased restrictions and penalties. The significant federal legislation included the Food and Drug Act (1906), the Harrison Narcotics Act (1914), the Narcotic Drug Import and Export Act (1922), the Uniform Narcotic Act (1932), and the Narcotics Drug Control Act (1956). Consequently, the growth in use and abuse was slowed significantly but persisted in underground populations supplied by a new black market. Indeed, by the middle of the 1920s, the underground traffic in narcotics equaled the legitimate medical traffic, and "dope peddlers" appeared to have established national as well as international organizations for smuggling the drugs by land and sea. Concomitantly, the behavior and health problems of users, already changing for the worse before restrictive legislation was enacted, were exacerbated by the new laws (Courtwright, 1982).

These legislative acts, coupled with the Depression and the subsequent introduction of amphetamines in 1932, contributed to the low plateau of cocaine use until the late 1960s. Amphetamines initially were legal, abundantly available, and cheap. The cycle of widespread cocaine use would not resurface until changes in medical practices (e.g., the Drug Abuse Control Amendments of 1965), legislation (e.g., the Controlled Substances Act of 1970), and a strong educational campaign (e.g., "Speed Kills") effectively stopped the widespread use of amphetamines. Soon after, the subsequent third cycle of cocaine use was born.

The Third Cycle: Use (1970-1978)

The first contemporary book on cocaine appeared in 1972 (Chasin, 1972) and marked a resurgence in nonmedical cocaine use. The book noted that 90 percent of users preferred intranasal administration, a pattern of use illustrated in several motion pictures released that same year (Go Ask Alice, Dealing, Super Fly, and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie). In those movies, cocaine use was portrayed as discreet, involving small intranasal hits from spoons or straws; charming, in terms of the perception users had of their use; and bourgeois, finding its way into middle-class lives. These patterns were not inventions of screenwriters but simply reflections of contemporary models of use (Starks, 1982).

The cocaine paraphernalia industry was also developing (Wynne, et al. 1980), and spoons and straws for intranasal cocaine use became popular. Siegel (1977) determined that the average cocaine spoon available at that time delivered 5 to 10 mg of pure cocaine. The average amount of cocaine delivered through a straw from a "line" was 25 mg. Because two cocaine spoons or two lines (one for each nostril) were used, each administration consisted of 20 to 50 mg.

Various patterns of use ranging from experimental use of a few "lines" or "hits" of cocaine to daily compulsive use of 4 grams appeared during the period 1970-1978 (Siegel, 1984a). Five patterns of nonmedical cocaine use have been defined by Siegel (1977), and these will be used for discussion here.

1.

Experimental Use—Siegel's article defined experimental use as short-term, nonpatterned trials of cocaine with varying intensity and with a maximum lifetime frequency of 10 times (or a total intake of less than 1 gram). These users were primarily motivated by curiosity about cocaine and a desire to experience the anticipated drug effects of euphoria, stimulation, and enhanced sexual motivation. Experimental use was generally social and among close friends but did not continue for a multitude of reasons including economic and supply considerations, disappointment with the intensity and duration of the drug effect, and fear of legal penalties, among others.

2.

Social-Recreational Use—The most common pattern Siegel found was a social-recreational one in which use generally occurred in social settings among friends or acquaintances who wished to share an experience perceived by them as acceptable and pleasurable. Such use was primarily motivated by social factors and did not tend to escalate to more individually oriented patterns of use. Use tended to occur in weekly or biweekly episodes and continued primarily for three reasons: (1) cocaine was viewed as a social drug that facilitated social behavior; (2) cocaine was viewed as ''ideal'' and "safe" in terms of convenience of use and its minimal bulk, rapid onset, minimal duration, and few side and after effects; and (3) cocaine was seen as appealing in terms of sociocultural images.

3.

Circumstantial-Situational Use—Circumstantial-situational use was defined as a task-specific, self-limited use that was variably patterned and differing in frequency, intensity, and duration. This use was motivated by a perceived need or desire to achieve a known and anticipated drug effect deemed desirable in coping with a specific condition or situation. Use tended to occur in four or five episodes per week. Motivations cited by users included the enhancement of performance or mood at work and play.

4.

Intensified Use—Intensified use was defined as long-term patterned use at least once a day. Such use was motivated chiefly by a perceived need to achieve relief from a persistent problem or stressful situation or a desire to maintain a certain self-prescribed level of performance.

5.

Compulsive Use—Compulsive use was defined as high-frequency and high-intensity levels of relatively long duration, producing some degree of psychological dependency. The dependence is such that the individual user does not discontinue such use without experiencing physiological discomfort or psychological disruption. Compulsive patterns are usually associated with preoccupation with cocaine-seeking and cocaine-using behavior to the relative exclusion of other behaviors. The motivation to continue compulsive levels of use was primarily related to a need to elicit the euphoria and stimulation of cocaine in the wake of increasing tolerance and incipient withdrawal-like effects.

The Fourth Cycle: Abuse

Changes in Use During the Fourth Cycle

In an effort to assess the frequency and dosages of cocaine use during this period, several hundred users, representing different populations and varying patterns of use, were evaluated with a new toxicological test: radioimmunoassay of hair samples (Baumgartner et al., 1982, 1989).⁵ This method, known as radioimmunoassay hair (RIAH), enabled confirmation of self-reported drug histories. Indeed, the RIAH test has proven useful in the diagnosis and treatment of substance abuse in both psychiatric and criminal justice populations (Sramek et al., 1985; Baumgartner et al., 1989). Key findings are summarized below for subjects in each population sampled.

Long-Term Users

A total of 16 subjects from Siegel's original longitudinal study were contacted and reexamined in 1988 for purposes of this report. Although this represents a relatively high rate of attrition, it is important to recognize that the subjects in this longitudinal study were the first to manifest patterns of cocaine smoking in the United States, and their continued study enabled the prediction of the present epidemic of cocaine smoking. In addition, these users were among the first to display other new fashions in cocaine use including coca paste smoking and intranasal use of cocaine free base. Most importantly, a 1988 reexamination might show how the war on drugs and other events during the fourth cycle affected preexisting patterns of use. The key RIAH findings are summarized below for each group in this longitudinal study.

1.

Social-Recreational Users (N = 9): Three of these users reported episodes of social-recreational use from 1984 to 1988. When using cocaine, they averaged 0.58 grams per week (range, 0.25-1.00 grams). Although this represents a substantial decrease in dose from previous years, the average purity of their submitted samples was 86 percent, an increase of more than 10 percent from the samples analyzed in 1983. Hair samples from these three subjects, reflecting growth from the previous 6 to 13 months, were sectioned into monthly segments and analyzed. The results are given in Table 1 (subjects A, B, and C). It can be seen that all three subjects had periods of no use interrupted by periods of continuing use for one or more months. During periods of cocaine use, the quantitative RIAH levels for all social-recreational users were in the range of 5 to 20 nanograms (ng) per 10 mg of hair. These levels have been classified as "low," and they are associated with individuals reporting infrequent social use of cocaine (W.A. Baumgardner, Psychemedics Corporation, personal communication, 1988).

Surprisingly, the remaining six subjects (subjects D though I) reported that they no longer used cocaine. The hair samples, reflecting use for up to the previous 11 months, confirmed distant but not recent use of cocaine for five of these subjects. Subject I showed regular exposure to cocaine for each of the previous 5 months, but urine tests given at the time of the examination revealed no current use.

2.

Circumstantial-Situational Users (N = 2): The two users in this category (subjects J and K in Table 1) reported that they rarely used cocaine anymore but now used methamphetamine intranasally on a daily basis for the same purposes. Urine and RIAH were negative for cocaine and positive for methamphetamine and its amphetamine metabolite in both subjects.

3.

Compulsive Users (N = 5): All five of these compulsive users had been smokers of cocaine free base at the 1983 examination. Since that time, two had been through treatment programs and reported that they no longer used cocaine, a report supported by negative findings in urine and RIAH (subjects L and M in Table 1). Subjects N and 0 reported compulsive smoking of cocaine free base at high levels, a report supported by RIAH findings of cocaine metabolite at levels in the range of 500 ng/10 mg to 1,000 ng/10 mg. RIAH levels above 101 are classified as ''high,'' but only compulsive cocaine smokers appear to achieve levels consistently above 500 ng. Subject P reported continuing compulsive use but with intranasal cocaine and only occasional "parties" at which cocaine free base was smoked. The RIAH indicated regular exposure to cocaine for this subject in the range of 20 ng/10 mg to 100 ng/10 mg, levels classified as "medium" and substantially lower than those associated with smoking cocaine free base.⁶

TABLE 1

Segmental RIAH Analysis by Months for Social-Recreational Users Indicating Positive (+) Results for Cocaine Metabolite (1 month = 1 cm of hair).

Cocaine Free Base Users (N = 22)

This Los Angeles area group consisted of individuals seeking clinical attention for cocaine abuse. All reported daily compulsive smoking of cocaine free base, with an average weekly intake of approximately 7 to 14 grams, and all satisfied the diagnostic criteria for a cocaine smoking disorder (Siegel, 1984c), cocaine abuse, and severe cocaine dependence (DSM-III-R⁷). The average RIAH level was 623 ng/10 mg (range, 4-2,560 ng/10 mg).

Intravenous Cocaine Users (N = 8)

This group consisted of recent arrestees in California and Colorado. They reported binge use of approximately 2 to 7 grams per week, and all satisfied the diagnostic criteria for cocaine abuse and severe cocaine dependence. The average RIAH level was 173 ng/10 mg (range, 18-1,560 ng/10 mg).

Crack Users (N = 27)

This Los Angeles area group consisted of individuals arrested for possession or sales of crack as well as street crack users recruited for interview studies. Most reported compulsive binge use with an average weekly intake of approximately 1 to 5 grams when supplies were available. All satisfied the diagnostic criteria for cocaine abuse. The severity of their cocaine dependence varied: 14 had symptoms that could be diagnosed as mild, 9 were classified as moderate, and 4 had symptoms of severe cocaine dependency. The average RIAH level seen in the mild and moderate users was 18 ng/10 mg (range, 3-122 ng/10 mg). The average RIAH level in the severe cases was 33 ng/10 mg (range, 3-147 ng/10 mg).

Intranasal Cocaine Users (N = 51)

This group consisted of individuals being evaluated for court proceedings in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York. In general they reported varying patterns of use ranging from social-recreational to compulsive with weekly intakes of 1 to 21 grams. All satisfied the criteria for cocaine abuse and dependence (mild, N = 31; moderate, N = 14; and severe, N = 6). The average RIAH level was 12 ng/10 mg (range, 2-218 ng/10 mg). The higher values in this range tended to be associated with individuals who reported histories of compulsive intranasal use and were diagnosed with severe dependence. Several of these intranasal users showed RIAH exposure levels far greater than any found among crack users.

Discussion

The history of coca and cocaine has been a history of increasing doses, increasingly effective routes of administration, and increasing incidence of dependency and toxicity. It is clear that cocaine has a high potential for abuse and that the effects are neither predictable nor controllable.

It is also clear, however, that by avoiding high doses and risky routes of administration, individuals have engaged in long-term use of cocaine with low incidences of clinical problems. The best example of this is also the oldest: coca. The chewing and smoking of coca leaves marked the first cycle of cocaine use, and these practices continue today among native Andean peoples with little if any abuse. The amount of cocaine ingested from these leaves amounts to less than 500 mg per day, a behaviorally effective dose but one delivered slowly throughout the day.

A contemporary example of the relative safety of coca leaf preparations can be found in the coca tea episode of 1983 (Siegel et al., 1986). In order to divert Peru's enormous coca production into legal products, the Peruvian government's National Enterprise of Coca exported mate de coca or coca tea bags, to the United States. Millions of tea bags, labeled in English as either coca tea or decocainized coca tea, were sold and used throughout a three-year period ending in 1986. Analysis revealed that each tea bag contained approximately 5 mg of cocaine, the same dose found in a single, small cokespoon of street cocaine as used in the early 1970s (Siegel, 1977). Examination of representative coca tea drinkers using an average of 5 to 10 mg per day (range, 5-400 mg) confirmed the effects expected from the small amounts of cocaine: mild stimulation, mood elevation, and increased pulse rate. Most importantly, however, the coca tea drinkers did not satisfy the diagnostic criteria for cocaine abuse, and their claims of controlled use seemed to be correct. Indeed, during this three-year period the National Addiction Foundation in San Francisco dispensed coca tea as part of their cocaine treatment program, and their patients reported that it was effective in curbing the craving for cocaine itself.

Coca tea was also one of the many coca products in use at the end of the first cycle of use in the nineteenth century. These products delivered relatively low doses through relatively slow-acting routes of administration. Few nonmedical uses or abuses were noted during the subsequent era of coca patent medicines. Starting in 1860, as cocaine replaced coca, products became as much as 200 times more concentrated, intranasal and injection routes delivered the drug faster and more effectively, and the second cycle of both medical and nonmedical abuses grew.

After legislative suppression of cocaine in the early 1900s, followed by a period of amphetamine use, abuse, and suppression, cocaine enjoyed a third cycle of use in the 1970s. The cycle began with social-recreational patterns of intranasal cocaine use. This pattern involved the use of 1 to 4 grams per person per month, consumed in several episodes. The cycle ended with these same users consuming 1 to 3 grams per week in far fewer episodes. In addition, many users escalated doses and dose regimens as they changed to patterns of circumstantial-situational, intensified, and compulsive use. The pattern of cocaine smoking also appeared at this time.

A fourth cycle of cocaine abuse was clearly visible by 1978. The cycle began with increased availability of cheaper cocaine and a changing pattern of binge use wherein users continued cocaine use until their supplies or their bodies were exhausted. Doses still averaged 1 to 3 grams per week, but they were consumed in only one or two binge episodes per week. The 1970s observations of users titrating self-administration of cocaine, thereby circumventing negative and adverse reactions, appeared less common in the 1980s. Starting in 1982, several new patterns began to emerge including increased cocaine smoking and the use of topical routes of administration. The doses and routes associated with these patterns made controlled use difficult if not impossible and substantially increased the risks of dependency and toxicity.

In 1985 the introduction of crack changed the epidemiology of cocaine use in America by allowing individuals to purchase single doses of smokable cocaine free base. These vending practices brought cocaine free base within the budgetary reach of almost anyone; however, studies of crack users in Los Angeles suggested that they used impure preparations and consumed less cocaine than either cocaine free base smokers or intravenous cocaine users, and only slightly more than intranasal users. Contrary to perceptions generated by the media, crack users studied here had a lower incidence of severe dependencies than intravenous users or cocaine free base smokers. Nonetheless, the association of crack with violent crime, together with pressures from the government's war on drugs, acted to negate cocaine's image as a safe recreational drug and to reinforce the view, previously held at the end of the second cycle of abuse, that cocaine was an especially dangerous drug and that users were menaces and fiends (Ashley, 1975).

The similarity of events in these repeating cycles prompts speculation about where current trends will lead in the future. one source of these trends has been Siegel's study of a small group of social-recreational cocaine users who have been tracked through the third and fourth cycles. The changing patterns of use seen in these Los Angeles users appear to reflect trends eventually manifested in other populations. For example, in 1974 these users first experimented with smoking cocaine, a pattern of use that took many years to surface in other parts of the United States.

By 1988 several of Siegel's subjects had stopped using cocaine, a report supported by a new RIAH analysis of cocaine exposures in hair samples. For most of a decade these individuals had been continuing social-recreational users who escalated their dosages and changed their dose regimens while remaining resistant to total abstinence. Why did they stop? The users cited two factors: (1) the changing negative image of cocaine as a street drug and (2) the overall antidrug atmosphere promoted by the war on drugs. Nevertheless, although these factors may have influenced some of Siegel's subjects who were drawn from a population of generally well-educated and employed adults, they did not appear to affect the growing number of young, unemployed crack users appearing in the inner cities of America. The war against cocaine was unsuccessful in stopping cocaine use and only changed the patterns and behaviors of users (Wisotsky, 1983).

The second cycle of cocaine abuse had ended with similar changes in cocaine's image, similar antidrug campaigns, and the development of a widespread amphetamine problem. While nothing can be concluded from Siegel's two subjects who switched to methamphetamine, the growing number of methamphetamine labs and abusers surfacing throughout the western part of the United States (Methamphetamine labs, 1988; Methamphetamine on fast track, 1988) points to a potential methamphetamine epidemic that could attract many cocaine users. Indeed, small communities scattered throughout the United States already are experiencing a dramatic escalation in methamphetamine abuse (Isikoff, 1989). Taken together, these forces may bring about the end of the fourth cycle of cocaine abuse.

The demand for cocaine, however, a substance far more reinforcing and desirable than methamphetamine (or any other psychoactive drug), will persist among the millions of continuing users. If the domestic coca cultivation industry can develop to the levels achieved by marijuana cultivation, or if domestic synthetic cocaine laboratories can improve their production methods, then a fifth cycle of cocaine may follow. Whether such a future cycle is one of use or abuse will depend entirely on preparations, doses, and patterns of use.

The nature of these repeating cycles has important implications for treatment. The most significant finding is that cocaine abuse, and the need for its treatment, is not a necessary concomitant of growth in the number of users. Cocaine use is clearly different from cocaine abuse in terms of the doses and frequencies that constitute the various patterns of self-administration. Although the absolute number of people using cocaine has continually escalated, when low-dose preparations and infrequent patterns of use are the rule, as during the first and third cycles, there has been little need for treatment. Increased dosages and frequent patterns of use, as seen during the second and fourth cycles, have resulted in abuse, and these trends have been paralleled by an increase in the number and diversity of treatment services.

Therefore, it is important to recognize that behavior in the current fourth cycle includes several patterns of use associated with low doses and low toxicity, albeit large numbers of users (e.g., coca tea drinkers and some social intranasal users). Consequently, it might be more efficient to focus medical treatment resources on specific types of users who are almost always abusers (e.g., cocaine smokers) rather than targeting all users per se. However, it is equally important to note that even within a particular group such as crack users, individuals may differ substantially in the severity of their dependence. Thus, treatment services must remain adaptive to the needs of clients and flexible in approaches.

In cases of cocaine intoxication and acute toxic reactions, treatment can be guided by clear diagnostic criteria including physical and behavioral indices. But diagnosis of cocaine abuse and dependence do not rest on such clear signs as intoxication or even route of administration. Rather, such determinations rely more heavily on an individual's self-reported history of cocaine use. Self-reported histories are not completely trustworthy: they may be lacking in important details, they may be self-serving, or people give confused histories because of intoxication. Therefore, treatment services might benefit by utilizing the RIAH toxicology test as an aid to diagnosis and to monitor treatment itself.

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Footnotes

1

Pratt (1943) records the purchase as cocaine. The original entry in the day books of Corneau & Diller records the purchase as "cocaine." This spelling was sometimes used for coca extract products, for a coca wine named "Cocaine," for a cocaine-based local anesthetic preparation, and for a coconut oil hair product named "Cocaine."

2

This statement is based on unpublished raw data and archival information obtained from B. Hester, Khoka Productions, Inc., Jacksonville, Florida.

3

Several earlier works, beginning with a 1787 dissertation (Julian, P.A. Disertacion Sobre Hayo o Coca dans la Perla de la America, Lima, 1787), are cited by Chevrier (1868) and referenced in the bibliography by Mortimer (1901).

4

Based on information obtained from B. Hester, Khoka Productions, Inc., Jacksonville, Florida.

5

The RIAH tests were performed by Ianus Foundation and Psychemedics Corporation.

6

Compulsive cocaine smokers also showed significantly more cocaine trapped in the outside cuticle layer of hair (which absorbs ambient smoke) than did compulsive intranasal users.

7

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd ed., rev. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association, 1987.

Ronald K. Siegel is affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles.