PS268 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Coca, Coca Wine, Peter Bourne
Document Summary
Stimulants generally excite the central nervous system and depressents usually inhibit it. Creates feelings of: intense pleasure, increased alertness, decreased appetite and decreased need for sleep. Earliest civilization in the americas (5000 bce) traced the use of coca (a bush that grows in the andes and produces cocaine) Erythroxylon coca: thrives et elevations 600-2400 meters on amazon slope mountains (lots of rain: shrub= pruned to accomplish easier picking (3 or 4 times a year, cocals: small one-hectare patches of coca (cultivation more than 800 years) Incas: developed civilization in peru: coca used in religious ceremonies and as money. Spanish: paid laborers with coca leaves (seen as increasing strength and endurance while decreasing need for food) 0. 05g per dose: fleischl: used to treat friend who had an episode of cocaine psychosis. 1890: shelock holmes shows initial stimulation and later depression. Beginning of 20th century: cocaine was everywhere. End of 1960"s: amphetamines= harder to obtain, cocaine usage- increasing.
