Addictive properties, coca

Cocaine is an alkaloid present in the leaves of the South American coca plant Erythroxylon coca. It was first isolated in 1880, and soon thereafter its property as a local anesthetic was discovered. Cocaine was introduced into medicine and dentistry in 1884 by two young Viennese physicians, Sigmund Freud and Karl Roller. Unfortunately, the use of cocaine can create a dependence, as Freud himself observed when he used it to wean a colleague from morphine and thereby produced one of the first documented cases of cocaine addiction. 

The pharmacological activity and toxicity of coca is generally attributed to cocaine. In addition to its local anesthetic, central nervous system stimulant, and addictive (similar to amphetamines) properties, cocaine has many other activities (goodman and oilman list and hOrhammer martindale morton 3). Little is known of the effects of the other alkaloids present in coca leaf. ... 

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