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Student’s Name Professor’s NameCourse Date Drugs of Abuse Drug abuse is a big problem in the community today facing the public health. Each year in the U.S, drug abuse results in some severe illness and injuries. It also plays an integral role in many social problems that include violence, child abuse, and stress. Drug abuse can lead to increase of crime level, difficulties in keeping a job and homeliness. There are so many types of drugs that are abused globally that includes Marijuana, Heroin, Cocaine and Methamphetamine (Freye 33). In this paper, I choose to discuss more Cocaine since it is one of the most abused drugs, especially among the youths. Cocaine is a stimulant that is made from the leaves of a plant known as coca mainly found in South America. Coca is among the oldest and most powerful and dangerous stimulant of natural origin. The use of cocaine dates back to thousands of years ago. It was used back in 3000 BC by the Incas people. The Incas used coca to speed up their breathing since they used to live in the mountains. Air present at the top of the mountain is thicker and tends to slow up the breathing process. Because of this, the Incas would chew the leaves that acted as a stimulant to help them speed up their breathing (Karch 97). In 1551, the Catholic Church in South America viewed the use of coca as undermining spread of Christianity. That is when the bishop urged the Peruvian government to burn its use. Ultimately, Coca was burned but this was done in terms of land that was used to grow it. Albert Niemann who was a chemist from Germany was the first person to be able to extract cocaine from the coca plant. This was done back in the
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