Cocaine: Champagne or Muscatel?

Reviews the book, Cocaine: A Drug and Its Social Evolution by Lester Grinspoon and James B. Bakalar (1976). The first section of the book provides a nice account of the use of coca leaves by natives of Peru and Bolivia. It makes clear that the use of coca leaves is quite different than the use of cocaine. The chewing of coca leaves has been a part of the natives culture for centuries, involves a large segment of the population, is used to ameliorate the hardships of living in a difficult environment, and probably does not produce the brief but intense psychological effects of cocaine. The second, section of the book summarizes much of the information that has been written or stated about the pharmacology, physiology, and psychology of cocaine. The final section discusses in detail the inconsistencies in our social policies concerning drugs of abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)