Cocaines not addictive, darling. I should know, Ive been taking for years. That airy disclaimer uttered by Tallulah Bankhead echoes ironically today. The coca plant was named the Tree of Life. Cocaine, first extracted in 1860, was greeted by the world as a wonder drug. Sigmund Freud embraced it as a remedy for almost every ailment; some believed it a cure for the human condition itself. By 1900 cocaine formed the basis to several hundred brands of patent medicines and was the preferred pick-me-up of the Belle poque.
