The truth about cocaine

1. The history of cocaine

Coke, blow, charlie, ching, white lady, snow, Colombian Marching Powder, devil’s dandruff, sneachta – call it what you like, it’s all the same thing and has been available in its familiar white powdered form for almost 150 years.

Undoubtedly one of the world’s most controversial narcotics, cocaine comes from Erythroxylum coca (more commonly known as the coca plant), a fairly unremarkable-looking green shrub, native to South America and Madagascar. Although the genus Erythroxylum contains some 250 species, many of which are cocaine-producing, there are only a few varieties which produce enough of the alkaloid to make them worthwhile cultivating. These include Erythroxylum coca, ipadu, novogranatense and truxillense, and are widely grown in Peru, Bolivia and Colombia, amongst other countries.

The plant has been used for thousands of years by South American Indians, who traditionally chewed the coca leaf for stimulation and to fend off hunger, fatigue and altitude sickness. This primitive practise – chewing wads of leaves and mixing them with alkaline powders made from burned roots or crushed seashells – continues to this day. However, it’s the chemically processed form of the leaf that’s caused all the recent fuss.

The real problems began with the first scientific forays into the jungles of South America in the 1850’s. Although they viewed the chewing of coca leaves as a vile practice, European explorers were nonetheless intrigued by the plant’s stimulating properties, and sent samples home for analysis. Cocaine was first isolated in 1859 by one Albert Niemann, a 25-year-old PhD student at the University of Gottingen.

Having washed coca leaves in 85 per cent alcohol, with a trace of sulphuric acid, he then distilled off the alcohol to leave a sticky substance. Separating a resin from this and mixing it with bicarbonate of soda yielded a quantity of white rod-shaped crystals – the active constituent of coca. In line with the names of the other alkaloids – nicotine, morphine, strychnine, etc. – Niemann called his new compound coca-ine (cocaine).

Niemann’s thesis On a New Organic Base in the Coca Leaves was published in 1860, but it took more than twenty years before his discovery began to make any real impact. Although both the military and the medical establishment had investigated (albeit inconclusively) the potential of this powerful new alkaloid, it was actually the young Sigmund Freud who first brought cocaine into the wider public sphere.

The then relatively unknown Viennese doctor – later to find fame as the father of psychoanalysis – first tried cocaine in the early 1880s and, totally amazed at its ‘feel good’ properties, immediately began encouraging friends and colleagues to try it.

Freud was so enamoured of this new wonder-drug that he even wrote a medical paper singing its praises (Uber Coca, 1884) and remained a heavy user for well over a decade. However, it was his colleague Carl Koller, who first discovered that cocaine didn’t just make you feel great, it was also a highly effective local anaesthetic.

As word of cocaine’s remarkable analgesic properties spread, manufacture was stepped up and a wide variety of tonics, cures and potions appeared on the market, the most successful of which were drinks like Vin Mariani and Coca-Cola. The medical establishment also had great success with the drug and, in 1884, the New York Times reported: “The new uses to which cocaine has been applied with success in New York . . . include hayfever, catarrh and toothache and it is now being experimented with in cases of seasickness . . . All will be given to understand that cocaine will cure the worst cold in the head ever heard of.”

Given this kind of positive press it’s hardly surprising that, within a few years, people were buying shots of pure cocaine over the pharmacy counter and, in the bars of certain US states, a ‘whisky and coke’ was exactly that. By 1890, America was going through a ton of the stuff annually. Harrods of London was also doing a steady trade, selling it by the gram.
Still regarded as a somewhat elitist drug, the first cocaine addicts were predominantly middle-class – mostly doctors, dentists and their spouses and friends. Cocaine was also wrongly reported to be an effective cure for morphine addiction and so many heroin addicts (also mostly doctors), intending to cure one vice, actually gained another.

Although problems were being spotted as early as the mid-1880s, cocaine was still sold openly throughout most of Europe and America at the turn of the century, with most of the world’s supplies being legally processed in Germany. However, as pharmaceutical production increased, the price dropped and the underclass quickly began to get in on the act. As the drug began to lose its exclusivity and allure, and addiction levels hit epidemic proportions, the media soon made the connection between cocaine and street crime, prompting a slow but steady political response.

The first US state to take any prohibitive action was Oregon, which banned the sale of cocaine without a prescription in 1887. Other states followed suit.

Under the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, cocaine was officially labelled a poison and manufacturers of cocaine-based tonics and drinks forced to label their products as such. Most quickly went out of business (though Coca Cola merely altered its chemical formula to avoid having to admit that their product contained traces of cocaine). However, it was still possible to buy pure cocaine over the counter without too much difficulty.

Eventually, with estimates of the number of “coke-fiends” (as the media had dubbed them) in the US varying between 200,000 and 6 million, the Harrison Act of 1914 was passed. This decreed that all dangerous drugs must be handled by qualified persons and that these persons had to keep an accurate record of their use.

Penalties for illicit trading or use were harsh and, by 1928, one-third of all American federal prison inmates were there for violations of the Harrison Act. Britain’s anti-drug effort didn’t really begin until 1920, when they introduced the Dangerous Drugs Act. Gradually other European countries adopted a similarly tough stance and pretty soon cocaine prohibition was in effect everywhere.

Such stringent efforts, coupled with the arrival of cheap, legal and supposedly safer amphetamines, ensured that by the mid-1930’s cocaine use was seriously on the wane everywhere but India and China. The outbreak of Word War II – with smuggling routes disrupted and millions dying on the battlefields – effectively put an end to it, and by the 1950’s it was so far underground as to be virtually unheard of outside of small medical, bohemian and heroin-abusing circles.

Although European and American drug abuse was rampant in the ’60s, the Baby Boomers were more into herbs and hallucinogens than stimulants and it wasn’t really until the ’70s that cocaine began to make a serious comeback (with a little help from the likes of Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones, who knowingly namechecked the drug in their songs).

Mostly coming in through Cuba, by the early ’70s it was considered such a problem that Richard Nixon officially declared war on it, and formed the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) in 1971. Ten years later, George Bush Snr – as vice-president to Reagan – also declared war on drugs and began throwing even more billions of dollars at the problem, to little or no positive effect. Ironically enough, it’s now common knowledge that Bush’s own son – George ‘Dubya’ Bush, now the US President – was a cocaine user at the time.

Although the DEA had a certain amount of surface success, they didn’t really stand a chance. By the 1980s so much cocaine was coming through Miami that it was simply impossible to stop. Powerful and ruthless gangs like the infamous Medellin Cartel, operating out of Columbia, Peru and Bolivia, ensured a constant supply on a massive scale, and simply murdered anybody who tried to get in their way.

By the 1990s cocaine was the second most widely used drug in America, after marijuana, with more than 10% of the population claiming to have tried it at least once. Probably the most famous cocaine dealer of all, Pablo Escobar, was assassinated in Columbia in 1992 but, although hailed as a great coup, the billionaire baron’s death did absolutely nothing to slow up the supply on the streets of America – North or South.

In English journalist Dominic Streatfield’s brilliantly researched and definitive history of the drug Cocaine (Virgin Books, 2001), he sums up the damage wreaked by cocaine in South America thus: “In the last 25 years alone, cocaine-generated cash has been responsible for coups d’etat in Bolivia and Honduras; has infiltrated the governments of the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Haiti, Cuba, and every single Latin American country without exception; has helped to fund a guerrilla war in Nicaragua (creating one of the most embarrassing scandals in the CIA’s history); and has prompted the US invasion of Panama. In the late 1980s, traffickers in Peru and Bolivia were so wealthy that they offered to pay off their countries’ national debts; meanwhile, Colombia’s traffickers were so powerful that they declared war on their own country – and brought it to its knees.”

Given all of this, it comes as no surprise to hear that by the turn of the millennium, global cocaine sales were generating $92,000,000,000 annually – more than Microsoft, Kellogs and McDonalds combined. With the North American market fully saturated, Colombian gangs began turning their attention to Europe. Thus the current flood of cheap and high quality cocaine into Ireland, Britain, Spain and other mainland countries. There is absolutely no sign that the trade is diminishing. If anything, the market is still expanding. And there are more people addicted and incarcerated than ever before.

2. Cocaine in Ireland

Twenty-five years ago there was virtually no cocaine problem in Ireland. Indeed, by today’s standards, there was virtually no cocaine. The country was still in the economic doldrums and, outside of certain business and entertainment circles, there was little or no market for a drug that set you back anywhere between £130-£200 per gram, and could land you in some very serious trouble if you were unfortunate enough to be caught using it.

“It was around but you’d only be able to get it occasionally,” is how one seasoned veteran of the ’80s Dublin nightclub scene remembers it. “There weren’t really any coke dealers – just dealers who’d occasionally get a bit of coke. There was always a little bit around the music business. Occasionally some enterprising roadie would bring a couple of ounces back from London and sell it on or whatever, but it was never consistent and supply would usually dry up pretty quickly. People were paranoid about it, but you’d still always know when it was around. It was so fucking glamorous that people would almost want you to know they were taking it when you met them out!

“But in the mid-’80s when every A&R guy in the world was hanging around looking for the next U2, that’s when coke really started coming in, in a big way. It was a noticeable change. It wasn’t always readily available but, if you were in the know, then you could usually get some organised. There was absolutely nothing outside of Dublin though.”

Times sure have changed. Two decades on and, per capita, Ireland is now the third largest consumer of cocaine in Europe. This is no news to the authorities. According to sources at the National Drugs Unit there has been a “significant increase” in cocaine use in Ireland over the last few years. That’s putting it mildly . . .

“Cocaine is definitely one of the biggest drugs in Ireland now,” one detective (who asked not to be named) told hotpress. “Even ten years ago there wasn’t a huge amount of cocaine being used here. It was still seen very much as a champagne drug and was being used almost exclusively by the upper classes and maybe a few people in the music industry. I’m sure you fellas at hotpress would know who I’m talking about (laughs). It was still very expensive and the market just wasn’t big enough to make it worth anyone’s while bringing it in.”

But then along came a tiger…

“Suddenly there was a lot more money floating about in the mid-’90s with the Celtic Tiger and all that,” he continues. “Cocaine was seen as very glamorous and everybody wanted in on the act. There was a coca boom in Colombia, and a lot more of it around, so the price had also dropped significantly. Criminal gangs started bringing it in because it was cheaper and there was money around.

“Also, a lot of people were getting sick of ecstasy. Nobody wanted to take these pills when they didn’t know what was in them. Whether it’s true or not, coke is seen as a much purer drug. We’re finding that a lot of former ecstasy users have turned to cocaine. We’re even finding a lot of heroin users are now turning to cocaine.”

The truth is, it’s probably easier to score coke than heroin nowadays anyway. With Ireland being directly targeted by European-based Colombian gangs, organised crime getting a foothold and many former loyalist and republican terrorists turning to drug dealing, cocaine has never been so plentiful, as it is right now. As a result, street prices have plummeted and a one gram wrap of cocaine can now be bought for as little as €40 or €50. Smuggled in by air and sea to feed a seemingly insatiable demand, even recent record seizures by the Drug Squad don’t seem to make any dent in Ireland’s newest growth industry.

According to the cocaine figures in the Gardai Annual Crime Report, there was a total of 85,554 grams (a little over 85-and-a-half kilos) seized in 213 separate cases in 1999; 18,041 grams seized in 206 cases in 2000; and a mere 5,325 grams seized in 300 cases in 2001. The statistics for 2002 aren’t available yet, but although those figures would appear to indicate a decrease in the amount of cocaine coming into the country, our Garda source says the figures are deceptive.

“There were some particularly big seizures in 1999 and 2000 that weren’t actually representative of the Irish trade,” he points out. “We found 52 kilos in a consignment of bananas on a Colombian boat en route to Rotterdam, but we think that was a mistake by the traffickers and wasn’t meant to be here at all. We also arrested two South African women bringing 18 kilos through Dublin Airport. The next year again, we made two separate seizures of 7 kilos and 4 kilos at the Airport. But not all of that was for the Irish market.”

Although he didn’t want to estimate exactly how much cocaine is currently coming into the country, recent seizures speak for themselves. Major busts so far this year include nine kilos seized in Blanchardstown, one kilo in Sheriff Street, one half-kilo in Cabra, one-and-a-quarter kilos in Sundale Avenue and a quarter kilo in Crumlin. Weapons were also seized at some of these locations. More recently, on February 11, €2 million worth of cocaine was seized, and three men in their 30’s arrested (two British, one Irish) in a joint customs and National Drugs Unit raid on a house on the Old Lucan Road in Palmerstown.

The news made just three short paragraphs on page 8 of the following day’s Evening Herald – a pretty good indication of just how far Ireland’s coke problem has developed in recent years.

3. The dealers’ story

With the recent increase in demand for cocaine, has come a corresponding increase in the number of people selling it. Garda sources estimate that the Colombian gangs alone have up to 60 distributors working in Ireland, and admit that there are many other crime syndicates and independent operators involved in the trade besides. On a street level, if they’re clever and discreet, most cocaine dealers can operate a small but profitable business without ever coming to the attention of the drug squad.

One such small-time dealer willing to talk to hotpress is Charlie (obviously not his real name). Based in the west of Ireland, he used to deal exclusively in hash and grass, but began dealing coke – or “sneachta” as he calls it – in the late ’90s, as there was an increasingly obvious market for it. Another deciding factor came when the Fianna Fail government introduced a mandatory sentence of ten years for anyone caught in possession of £10,000 worth of any drug. Like many dealers, he figured that he might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

Charlie’s in his early thirties, has a respectable day job and has never once been busted in his decade-long career as a drug dealer. Nor does he plan to be. As a rule, he doesn’t deal with gangsters. He has a good cocaine contact in the “London music industry” and a small group of loyal customers back home. Rarely off his mobile phone when the drug is in, he generally delivers coke to people’s doors or meets them in car parks, preferring to avoid passing it on in clubs and pubs. The usual order is either a gram or an eighth (three-and-a-half grams).

“Most of my customers are in their late twenties or early thirties and they’ve all got good jobs,” he says. “A lot of them work in advertising or media or the music business. And some of my most regular customers are lawyers. Everybody’s very low-key and discreet. Some of them have families and are quite respectable. But then I’ve got quite a few customers who are factory workers or hairdressers as well. All sorts of people are taking it – men and women.”

The cocaine is regularly delivered to Ireland from London, though he’s understandably reluctant to say how it gets in. Every four to six weeks, he travels to a pre-arranged location (last month it was the car park of the Liffey Valley Centre) and collects “a niner” (nine ounces) of cocaine. He pays about €10,000 a niner, but can get more on credit if he needs. He keeps three ounces for himself and passes on the other six to friends for a small profit.

From this investment he can expect to turn almost 200% profit – stepping on the coke with glucose or novocaine, and then selling it on in individually wrapped grams for anything between €55 and €100 (€200-250 for an eighth), depending on the customer. Earning up to two grand a week, truth be told, he doesn’t really need his day job for anything but front.

Although the demand is obviously there, he has no plans to further expand his business. “It’s getting cheaper and the demand is there, but I’m happy as I am,” he explains. “It’s generally anywhere between €35,000 and €40,000 per kilo, but I’ve never actually bought that much. I’d have to start selling to more people to get rid of a kilo and that’s when things can get messy. When it arrives in London it’s usually about 80 or 85% pure, but by the time it gets here, it’s down to 60 or 65%. I mix it with barbiturates, glucose, muscle-enhancer, anti-histamines – anything that’s white and harmless, basically (Note: barbiturates are not harmless! – O.T). I can usually turn nine ounces into 27. I’ll easily sell nine of those in a month. I use a certain amount myself and give a bit away as samples, but I’m doing alright, you know.”

Charlie has no real fear of the Gardai, pointing out that he hardly ever carries serious amounts of cocaine on his person, and always divides and hides his stash in several different locations. Nobody really knows the full extent of his business and unless he’s unlucky, he’s confident he’ll never come to the attention of the drug squad. However, the authorities aren’t the only threat at the moment.

According to Charlie, a gang of itinerants have been trying to muscle in on the west of Ireland drug trade – targeting small-time dealers and either robbing them outright or else forcing them to pay protection.

“There’s a crowd of knackers hitting ounce-dealers in the towns outside Galway,” he says. “Basically they’re giving people a battering and robbing their stash. It’s not like you can call the cops if they rob you! They’re a vicious bunch of bastards, but they’ve also got no idea what they’re getting into. I don’t think they know I’m in the business, but I don’t want to find out that they do the hard way. But they’re pissing a lot of people off right now and their day will come pretty soon.”

Having said that, Charlie claims that the people supplying him don’t carry guns and he describes his business dealings as being very gentlemanly. “Everybody involved is sound, everybody knows everybody a long time, and there’s no violence or bullshit. If I don’t have all the money one month, it’s just a case of saying, ‘I’ll pay you for that next time’. There’s a lot of trust there. If I fucked anyone over for money, there probably wouldn’t be any serious comeback. They definitely wouldn’t shoot me. They’d just cut me out.”

Things aren’t quite so cosy at the blacker end of the market though. Charlie and his associates don’t really see themselves as hardened criminals – more as entrepreneurs in a very risky business. More often than not, their clients are also their friends and acquaintances. Professional criminals, however, for whom cocaine is just another commodity, don’t hesitate when it comes to eliminating competition and protecting their profits – as recent events in Belfast, Dublin and Limerick have demonstrated.

Mike (not his real name) is a Dubliner in his late 20’s and is currently serving a lengthy jail sentence in Ireland for ecstasy and cocaine trafficking, and other gang-related activities. Although he’s been locked up for the last six years, he still has his ear to the gangland ground.

“Cocaine is the main drug in Ireland now, without a doubt,” he says. “It’s far bigger than ecstasy and heroin, and it’s gonna get bigger still. Everybody who was dealing E seven or eight years ago is now making loads more money selling coke. And there’s some shit-hot stuff coming in these days – 76-78% pure. There are a few big crews shipping it in from Argentina, Holland and England and there’s so much coming in that the price is well down from what it used to be. You can buy a kilo in England for £25,000. Even though that’s sterling, it’s still fucking cheap compared to what it used to cost. And these crews are tough bastards, bringing in guns as well.”

As somebody serving a lengthy jail sentence, does Mike think the government’s current drug policy is working?

“Like fuck it is! There’s more people in the business now than there was when I got banged up. Even when the cops do take down a gang, there’s always someone else ready to take their place. When supply is hit, demand goes up, price goes up and it becomes more attractive for people to get involved. Like, you’re talking big bucks here – millions and millions of euros. There’s a huge demand for coke – people are crying out for it and they’re willing to pay for it. Unless you can stop the demand, you’ll never stop the trade. And you’ll never stop the demand – people are fucking mad for it. It’s here to stay!”

4. The crack is bad

The word ‘crack’ was first used in the New York Times in 1985 and, although there was actually nothing new about it (it was simply another name for freebase cocaine, which had been around for years), it immediately sparked a media sensation. Erroneously seen as a brand new substance and dubbed ‘the issue of the year’ in Time magazine, crack accounted for no less than five separate cover stories each in both Time and Newsweek in 1986.

The public were horrified by lurid stories about ‘crack babies’ and ‘crack houses’, and demanded that something be done. One of the more infamous myths about crack told of how smoking just one hit of it was enough to have you addicted for life. It was bullshit. Nothing is that addictive. As it happened, crack-use wasn’t even all that prevalent, but these stories made for great headlines. Inevitably, all of the press hype inadvertently created a huge demand.

As early as 1986, American DEA agents were quoted in Newsweek saying, “We are very concerned about a market being developed because of all the publicity. We feel it’s being accelerated by media hype.”

And it was. Within a year, crack was widely available in most American cities – particularly Washington and New York – and already beginning to infiltrate the European market. Although Britain has seen a particularly steady rise in crack use over the last decade, it has yet to take off in Ireland.

A particularly pure form of crystallised cocaine, usually pipe-smoked as little white rocks, crack is the cocaine equivalent of an alcoholic beverage like Aftershock – and has pretty much the same effect. It gets you very, very high, very, very quickly. However, most cocaine users tend to regard crack smoking the same way most drinkers regard drinking meths. It’s a big dirty no-no, the first step on a slippery slope to physical, financial and social ruin.

Although the National Drug Unit don’t regard crack-use as a problem at the moment, they’re not ruling out the possibility of there being trouble ahead.

According to a spokesman, “We’ve had a few seizures of crack, but nothing to indicate that there’s a serious problem at the moment. We raided a house in the North Inner City last year and arrested three non-nationals who had a small amount of crack – nothing huge though – and some crack-smoking equipment. That’s about it though.

“I hope to God that it doesn’t come in, but looking at the way other drugs have taken off over here, it’s quite probable that we’ll start to see a problem before too long.”

5. The case for legalisation

Although there are increasingly positive signs that cannabis may eventually be decriminalised in Europe, it’s highly unlikely that a class-A substance like cocaine will be legalised in the current climate – especially given the drug’s associations with terrorist groups like FARC in Colombia. Most politicians are terrified of being seen as “soft on drugs” and refuse to even debate the issue or consider a change of policy.

Most – but thankfully not all. Last December 23rd, the Green Party’s Patricia McKenna was one of 108 MEPs who signed an EU proposal to legalise drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis, and make heroin available for medicinal purposes. The MEPs rightly believe that international efforts to stamp out the trafficking and sale of drugs have simply increased their street value, to the benefit of organised crime and terrorist groups.

In signing the proposal, McKenna proved herself to be one of the only Irish politicians willing to adopt an intelligent and realistic approach to a growing social problem.

“As things stand, a lot of people in this country are taking drugs and the only way they can get them is by going to a criminal,” the Green MEP told the Irish Times. “I think it is time that we took a look at this issue. The current system simply creates opportunities for drug dealers. It’s a mess. People who are going to drug dealers to buy drugs don’t even know what they are really taking, and I think that is a dangerous situation.”

The recommendation proposes the establishment of a system “of legal control and regulation of production, sale and use of currently illegal substances.” If nothing else, it should hopefully cause some debate.

“When you suggest examining our policies towards drugs there are always going to be a lot of knee-jerk reactions,” said McKenna. “But I really think we need a debate about this. I’m not saying drugs are good and everyone should go out and take them. It would all have to be done in a very controlled environment. The proposal doesn’t envisage having bars selling drugs or anything like that, and of course they would only be available to adults.”

The proposal will be put to the EU convention on drugs in Vienna next April. However, it’s probably safe to say that, however logical the arguments, we shouldn’t be holding our breath for any radical change of policy in the near future.

The facts

* Sales of cocaine generate over $92 billion per annum – more than the combined turnover of Microsoft, Kellogs and McDonalds.

* More than 10% of the population of the USA have admitted to trying cocaine. The real figure is probably far higher.

* Ireland now has the third highest consumption of cocaine in the EU, on a per capita basis.

* 85,554 grams of cocaine were seized by Gardai in Ireland in 1999, with a street value, at the time, of approximately IR£8.5 million.

* On February 11th 2003, in the third high profile bust inside a month, 2 million euro worth of cocaine was seized in Dublin. There was no discernible effect on the availability of the drug in the city.

* The National Drug Unit do not regard the use of crack (AKA crack cocaine) as a significant problem in Ireland – yet.

* Increasingly cocaine is being imported and distributed by armed gangs. What was once an activity for ‘gentleman’ dealers is becoming more sinister and violent.

* A gang of travellers has been trying to muscle in on the West of Ireland drugs trade – with some success.

* Patricia McKenna MEP believes that cocaine should be legalised.