The Cocaine Market

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the tremendous growth of the cocaine business over the past two centuries. The writer explains that it started out as a medicinal drug and developed into a major part of an illegal underworld that has affected many lives and enriched those who realized the marketability and profitability of its potent and addictive nature. The paper relates that cocaine became immensely popular in the 70's disco era as it was thought not to be as harmful as speed or heroine, and it was believed to have a stimulating effect on the brain. The paper then shows how this led to cartels being set up in Columbia, bringing drug dealers huge profits from the drug trade throughout the 70s and 80s and even to the present. This paper includes tables.

Outline:
Cocaine's Early History on the Drug Market
A Very Sellable, But Illegal Drug
Reasons for Cocaine's Popularity
Cocaine and the Brain

From the Paper:

"Realizing cocaine's addictive nature and growing market value, The United States Government made its manufacturing and distribution illegal with The Controlled Substances Act of 1970. It was also in this decade that the cocaine trade took off as the drug became a very popular part of the culture in the United States. Understanding the drug's growing popularity, cocaine once again became a huge business beginning in South American countries, especially Columbia, and finding its way to the drug market in the United States."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brecher, Edward. Front Line. A Social History of America's Most Popular Drugs. Licit and Illicit Drugs. Pg 282.
• Business Heroes. John Stith Pemberton: The Inventor of Coca Cola. Pgs. 4-6. 1998.
• Drug Facts. Study Conducted by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. June 2005. http://www.cocaine.org.
• Farrenkopf, Christine. Cocaine and the Brain: The Neurobiology of Addiction. 2002.
• Freud, Sigmund. Essay: Ber Coca. 1886.

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