Miracle or Menace?: The Arrival of Cocaine 1860-1900

The arrival of cocaine was the formative episode in the modern understanding of the benefits and dangers of neurostimulants. European culture and medicine had historically been poor in stimulant plants and drugs. When coca and cocaine appeared in nineteenth-century Europe, doctors, pharmacists, and the public struggled to understand their benefits and risks, and to formulate a distinction between use and abuse.