The first Cocaine Era begins ruffly around 2500 BCE in South America. The Peruvian South Americans chewed on the Erythoxylan Shrub, which contains cocaine in its leaves. Historians believe that the use of this stimulant assisted this small, contained community to want to branch out and spread across the contenent. The cocaine provided the South AMericans with the energy and motivation to strive to make architectual and social advancements. This era of cocaine use was by far the least negative. The leaves the people sucked on were not nearly as potent as cocaine is today. The second cocaine era begun in the 19th century. This era is a huge turning point in the way cocaine effects societies. Scientist began experimenting with plants that had cocaine on their leaves to try and extract the cocaine itself. They ended up making the highly potent white powder that we know as cocaine today. After this discovery millions of people were using cocaine. This new drug was saught out to be a super drug that had no downfall. Coca- Cola even put cocaine in their extremely popular beverage. People didn't realize the true harm of cocaine at this time, in fact it was used medicinally for illnesses including depression, hysteria, digestive disorders, nervous exhuastion, and even drug addiction. Once scientist did studies and realized that cocaine is a very dangerous substance, and a very addictive substance cocaine was placed as a schedule 1 drug and endorsed as a dangerous drug rather than a super drug. The third, and most recent cocaine era began in the 1980's. The third era began after some scientist made the clam that cocaine really was not as dangerous as they made it out to be. Cocaine became glamorized by popular celebrities. With the scientist basically endorsing the drug, and celebrities glamorizing it cocaine became immensly popular. The demand for cocaine went way up and the prices went way down. Every group in society was effected by the 1980's…
