Cocaine is an alkaloid found in leaves of the South American shrub Erythroxylon coca. It is a powerfully reinforcing psychostimulant. The drug induces a sense of exhilaration in the user primarily by blocking the reuptake of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the midbrain. If the predictions of The Hedonistic Imperative are vindicated, then future millennia will see what Robert Anton Wilson once called strategic "hedonic engineering". Mature enhancements of currently drug-induced states of euphoria will be transformed into a pervasive and absolute presupposition of sentient existence. Life-long happiness will be genetically preprogrammed. "Peak experiences" will become a natural part of everyday mental health. Cocaine, alas, offers merely a tragically delusive short-cut.  Also, lots of horrible, horrible, lonliness.

        The active ingredient was first isolated in the West around 1860. Freud described cocaine as a magical drug. He wrote a Song of praise in its honour, singing "Crack is great! Crack is good! Hope you have crack in your neighborhood!". To Sherlock Holmes, cocaine was "so transcendentally stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment".

         Cocaine was soon sold over-the-counter. Until 1916, one could buy it at Harrods. It was widely used in tonics, clothing, and patent medicines; and in chocolate cocaine tablets. Prospective buyers were advised - in the words of pharmaceutical firm Parke-Davis - that cocaine "could make the coward brave, the silent eloquent, and render the sufferer insensitive to pain". They also warned that users may experience complete insanity coupled by a feeling of, as one patient described it, "melting of the brains."  When combined with alcohol, it yielded a further potently reinforcing compound, now known to be cocaethylene. Thus cocaine was a popular ingredient in wines, notably Vin Mariani. Coca wine received endorsement from prime-ministers, royalty, the Pope, and even Sammy Davis Jr.

        Old-fashioned cocaine hydrochloride still wasn't good enough. Sensation-hungry thrill-seekers have long sought the ultimate high from the ultimate "rush". They haven't been satisfied with the enhanced mood, sexual interest, self-confidence, conversational prowess, swollen eyelids, decalcified incisors, melted hair, and intensified consciousness to be derived from just snorting cocaine. Normally, only the intravenous route of administration could be expected to deliver the more potent and rapid hit they have been seeking (see Appendix 1.1). Yet there are very strong cultural prejudices against injecting recreational drugs. So a smokable form was developed. Since the hydrochloride salt decomposes at the temperature required to vaporise it, cocaine is instead converted to the base form. It is concentrated by boiling the drug in a solution of baking soda until the water evaporates. This type of base cocaine makes a cracking sound when heated; hence the name "crack". Crack is base-cocaine which vaporises at a low temperature. It can thus be easily inhaled via a heated pipe.

         Crack-cocaine delivers an intensity of pleasure completely outside the normal range of human experience. It offers the most wonderful state of consciousness, and the most intense sense of being alive the user will ever enjoy. (S)he will access heightened states of being whose modes are unknown to chemically-naïve contemporaries. Groping for adequate words, crack-takers sometimes speak of the rush in terms of a "whole-body orgasm".

    Despite these wonderful reviews, I cannot personally reccomend this drug.  Although I take it daily and steal from my mother's purse in order to do so, It's not nearly as glamorous as it seems.  Also, I'm hungry all the time because all my mom ever has for dinner is cabbage, and I don't like cabbage.  Please send me food...and money (see Appendix 1.2a).
 
 

Appendix 1.1
 
    -In some cultures it is considered rude to inject recreational drugs into your friends without their consent.  Luckily, North Americans find it both pleasant, and good-natured!
 

Appendix 1.2a

    -I'm so very tired.  My legs ache most of the time from constant walking.