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The following is a summary of the information
on coca and cocaine given by Dr. Harring on Sainsbury in "Drugs and the Drug Habit":-
The action has many resemblances to the action of tea and coffee: there is, for instance, a sense of exhilaration and refreshment, and whilst fatigue disappears, the desire for activity mental and bodily reappears, the subject of the drug feeling buoyant and light. A certain amount of benumbing is probably present even here, for there is a general freedom from discomfort, and with small doses this tranquilising effect may be the most noticeable.
It is for the effects of small and medium
doses that cocaine is sought, and, as in the case of morphia, whilst it is pain or some discomfort which invokes the aid of the drug, it is pleasure which converts the chance visitant into a close companion.
With use a rapid tolerance is effected so that the dose tends to mount quickly. Among the South American Indians the coca habit takes the form of leaf chewing, a little alkali (line) being admixed. The danger of this practice is not comparable to that of the European habit of swallowing or injecting the alkaloid or its salts. It follows that whilst among the Indians over-indulgence is comparatively rare, among Europeans the cocaine habit is in the front rank of drug cravings. It is not uncommon for the cocaine habit to exist along with that of morphia or alcohol, the cocaine having been introduced in the vain hope of breaking the one or other habit already acquired.
In