How Did We Get to Needing Cocaine Drug Testing?

Cocaine drug tests are now a part of our working lives. Random tests searching for a variety of drugs or metabolites are now a part of life. But how did we get here? Why did cocaine take off so much, and how did it evolve into the white powder or rocks that we know today?

For centuries the plant remained little more than a curiosity to Western botanists as it didn’t travel at all well. By the time explorers returned home with leaf samples, they had lost their potency so were useless for scientific study. The active ingredient of the coca plant, cocaine, was first isolated from the leaves by German chemist Friedrich Gaedcke in 1855. He published his findings in Archives de Pharmacie; he called it “Erythroxyline”. An improved process was developed by fellow German Albert Niemann in 1859, which he called “cocaine.” Along the way he discovered that cocaine acted as a local anesthetic.

The commercial production of purified cocaine only took off in the 1880s. Eye-surgery was in need of a good local anesthetic to aid procedures. The patient is often needed awake to assist the surgeon by moving the eye so administering general anesthetic wasn’t possible. The military took an interest as well, and in 1883, German physician Theodor Aschenbrandt administered cocaine to members of the Bavarian army. It was found that the drug enhanced their endurance on maneuvers and improved their mood when faced with hardship. Good job they didn’t have cocaine drugs tests back then!

Then a young Viennese neurologist, Sigmund Freud, played a role in the development of the Western cocaine-industry. “I take very small doses of it regularly and against depression and against indigestion, and with the most brilliant success”, he observed. Dutch drug companies Merck and Parke Davies then paid Freud to endorse their cocaine-based medicines.

Freud went on to say that cocaine could be used in 7 mental conditions. To act as a stimulant, to treat digestive disorders, appetite stimulant, treatment for asthma, as an aphrodisiac, an anesthetic and as a treatment for morphine and alcohol addiction. The last caused some controversy and Freud later famously admitted using cocaine to cure morphine addiction was “like trying to cast out the Devil with Beelzebub.”

Once science had a grasp of the properties, and potential of cocaine, word spread and illicit use became commonplace. Cocaine hydrochloride began being manufactured in South America and made its way across to Florida, and from there across the country. Now cocaine and crack use is a pandemic and causes significant social problems. Cocaine drug testing has its origins in necessity. The drugs origins are tribal, even though it was soon suborned by recreational users. What was once used widely in medicine, was approved by science and governments throughout Europe is now regarded as one of the scourges of the modern age.