A Spoonful of Sugar?

        Aschenbrandt's study was published in a German medical journal. The report was read by a young Viennese neurologist, Sigmund Freud. Freud was to play a significant 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. Drug giants Merck and Parke Davies both paid Freud to endorse their rival brands. He wrote several enthusiastic papers on cocaine, notably Uber coca (1884).

        Freud concluded Uber Coca by recommending seven conditions for which cocaine pharmacotherapy might prove valuable:

1. as a mental stimulant
2. as a possible treatment for digestive disorders
3. as an appetite stimulant in case of wasting diseases
4. as a treatment of morphine and alcohol addiction
5. as a treatment for asthma
6. as an aphrodisiac
7. as a local anaesthetic

        It was Freud's fourth recommendation which caused the most controversy. Cocaine is no longer recommended as an antidote to morphine addiction.

        Taken in an oral solution as Freud had envisaged, cocaine was indeed less likely to be addictive than when administered by the intravenous route. The euphoria induced is delayed; and it may be less intense. This is because a lot of the cocaine is broken down in the liver before it reaches the brain. However, hypodermic needles were starting to become widely available in the 1880s. Morphine addicts soon discovered that subcutaneous injections of cocaine yielded a quick, potent and addictive high. Before long, many users became hooked on cocktails including both.