Next, analyze various aspects of American culture in terms of drug use and abuseWriter’s choice

Cocaine Abuse between 1950 and 2000 In the USA
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Abstract
Albert Niemann thought to have made a medical breakthrough by extracting cocaine from the coca leaves, but he created a mess so big that the whole of the 20th century was not enough to clean the mess. The first ever legislation aimed at the fight of cocaine abuse was passed in 1914 but that only pushed for large-scale cocaine use in the underground circles. The existence of an unstable government in Peru, where the coca plant occurs naturally, created a favorable environment for setting up of labs to extract cocaine from coca leaves. Of all the known drugs, cocaine is the strongest known stimulant in its natural occurrence. Cocaine in its purest form is very expensive; cartels tried to bring the cost of cocaine down in 1950. In the 1950s a cheaper version of cocaine was introduced to America by the code name crack cocaine. Crack cocaine spread so fast through America that even the northern parts of USA had access to the drug. It is in the era of the second half of the 20th century that the pain of drug abuse was felt in America. Many people became addicted to cocaine while crimes associated with drug dealing, use and misuse became rampant. The 1980s saw the lowest moment in American history in the fight against cocaine abuse; cocaine was smuggled to the USA in tons like it had never happened before.
Key words:
Cocaine, Crack Cocaine, drug epidemic
Cocaine is found in the coca plant from which it is extracted after undergoing a series of lab procedures.

The coca plant is an indigenous crop of the Andean highlands of South America (Gootenberg, 2003). Cocaine hydrochloride in its extracted form is the most powerful stimulant in its natural occurrence. In South America, coca leaves are chewed to relieve fatigue or for refreshment just like one can brew a cup of coffee for refreshment. Cocaine use could no longer be tolerated in the USA and the world at large following the discovery of Albert Niemann on cocaine extraction. Albert Niemann was a German scientist credited with the development of cocaine extraction method from the coca plant. Cocaine hydrochloride would later be used as an anesthetic in medical procedures. Reception of cocaine by the medical realm was quick; by the 1900s cocaine hydrochloride was the chief ingredient in many medical stimulants (Gootenberg, 2003). On the other hand, illegal cocaine usage was on the rise. Worried by the uptake of illegal cocaine use, the USA government enacted the Harrison Narcotic Act in 1914 to counter the abuse of cocaine. However, the Harrison Act worked in the short run, drug abuse picked in the 1980s while the Harrison Act was still in operation.
1950 was supposed to start a new beginning in the USA; a cocaine-free nation, but this is the year massive reintroduction of cocaine to the market happened in the USA. The Balerezo Gang, one of the leading cocaine dealing gangs of the time, had been busted in 1949 and this was a relief to the USA government (Acker & Tracy, 2004). Several arrests happened in that year, and this was a short-lived triumph for the seven decades the USA had engaged in the fight against cocaine. In 1950, crack cocaine was introduced to the Americans by the various gangs that operated in the USA. Crack cocaine was cheaper than pure cocaine hence many people accessed cocaine due to its affordability (Acker & Tracy, 2004). Crack cocaine usage grew so fast that in the earlier 1990s, 500-800 tons of crack cocaine was being shipped to the northern parts of America generating a staggering 30 billion income for the cartels.
Production of cocaine in the following years took an upward trend as there were many reasons to keep the flow of crack cocaine (Gootenberg, 2003). Top among the reasons cocaine shipments grew is consumers of cocaine were demanding more each day and their needs could not be met by the sparling production of cocaine that was taking place. Secondly, drug dealers and cartels were determined to make the most out of the illicit trade hence the increased production of crack cocaine. The time following 1950 Columbian cartels caused a nightmare to the American authorities as they smuggled several tons of cocaine to the USA. By 1970, cocaine had become a total catastrophe in the American society. Researchers attributed the 1970s rise in cocaine abuse in USA to the government’s drug-suppression policies in the 1950s (Gootenberg, 2003).
The illicit re-birth of cocaine in the USA boundaries worried the government and the United Nations. Border seizures of cocaine rose steadily within the years 1960 and 1971. In 1960, only 6 pounds of cocaine were seized, and in 1971, a whopping 436 pounds of cocaine were seized (Acker & Tracy, 2004). By 1973, cocaine had proliferated in the USA where domestic captures of cocaine were in terms of kilos; 452 kilos of cocaine were seized in 1973. Continued presence of cocaine in the USA saw the acceptance of the drug to the American mainstream culture.
The crack cocaine epidemic emerged in 1985 spanning to the end of the decade. Re-introduction of cocaine to the masses especially the urban communities created disturbing images of the society that created no peace among the authorities. Health related problems were rampant, escalating rates of addiction, and unprecedented wave of street crimes became common following the major introduction of crack cocaine in the USA (Acker & Tracy, 2004). Many American cities became home to gangs that engaged in street crimes and other major crimes. Fights between gangs were common; common fights were in the market areas they could supply their crack cocaine. Drug-related crimes rose in the USA as the courts sent many drug users, peddlers, and dealers to the US prisons.
Findings arrived at in the 1980s projected that 8 million Americans actively engaged in cocaine abuse and misuse. Out of the 8 million cocaine users, 5-8 percent, were severe dependents of cocaine (Gootenberg, 2003). It is in the 1980s that crack cocaine replaced heroin use in the USA to stand out as the major drug problem in the United States.
In the American history with cocaine, the biggest surge was experienced between 1984 and 1990 during the crack cocaine epidemic. The number of Americans that accessed and got addicted to cocaine during the epidemic period was significant. At the end of 1986, crack cocaine was available in 28 states and the District of Columbia (Acker & Tracy, 2004). One year later in 1987, crack cocaine was available in all USA states except for four (Acker & Tracy, 2004).
One hundred and fifty-one metric tons of cocaine entered the USA in 1998 with a gram retailing at $169. The purity of cocaine in the USA was on the decline beginning 1991 while shipping of cocaine was at its peak. Cocaine available in the USA by 1997 was estimated at 289 metric tons which was the lowest amount since the boom of the crack epidemic in the 1980s and was far below the highest ever recorded seizure of 529 tons in 1992 (Acker & Tracy, 2004).
Drug abuse costs on the government increased from the earlier 1990s to the beginning of the 21st century; drug abuse cost rose at an average of 5.3 percent per year from 1992 to 2002 (Acker & Tracy, 2004). The rate of increase in the cost of drug abuse surpassed the gross domestic product for the USA by 0.2 percent. Money channeled to the fight against drug abuse is concentrated in the criminal justice system where drug peddlers and dealers undergo correction and rehabilitation.
The war on cocaine is a war that never came to an end, and it is not coming to an end any sooner. Since the clocking of the 21st century, 14 years later, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) has reported that cocaine abuse is still a problem to the American government. NSDUH asserts that cocaine use has remained stable for the past years with an estimation of 1.5 million cocaine users aged 12years and older (“What is the scope of cocaine use in the United States?”, 2016). In 2014, close to one million Americans were declared to be mentally unstable when their actions were weighted against the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSMMD) due to use of cocaine.
Cocaine was intended to help the human race as that was the purest intention of the German physician who came up with the method of extracting cocaine from coca leaves. The intoxicating nature of cocaine saw the misuse of the drug shortly after its acceptance to the medical field; massive cocaine abuse just before the start of the 20th century contributed largely to the enactment of the Harrison Narcotic Act. There was calm in the earlier 20th century with few underground labs still selling cocaine. In 1950, cocaine was reintroduced to the mainstream American culture with its new outfit of ‘crack cocaine.’ The reintroduction of cocaine to the American market saw Americans get addicted in millions. The peak of the crack epidemic was in the 1980s when cocaine was seized in tons which was the converse of the earlier years where crack captured amounted to pounds. The amount of crack cocaine has since dropped in the USA, but the effects are still around. Fourteen years since the beginning of the 21st century, America is still fighting cocaine abuse. Now more than ever, children as young as 12years are reported to be users of cocaine.

References
Acker, C. J., & Tracy, S. W. (2004). Altering American Consciousness: The History of alcohol and drug use in the United States, 1800-2000. Univ of Massachusetts Press.
Gootenberg, P. (2003). Between Coca and Cocaine: A Century or more of US-Peruvian drug paradoxes, 1860-1980. Hispanic American Historical Review, 83(1), 119-150.
What is the scope of cocaine use in the United States?. (2016). Drugabuse.gov. Retrieved 14 December 2016, from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/cocaine/what-scope-cocaine-use-in-united-states