Book Review

Canada and the United States

Cocaine burst upon the American scene as a wonder drug in 1884. In less than three decades, it became a menacing social problem. Joseph F. Spillane documents this transformation in rich, interesting detail.	1
While many others have studied the development of American drug control, Spillane's work is different in at least three respects. First, he studies cocaine as a commodity, tracing the growth of production and marketing of the drug. Second, he does this by drawing on previously unexplored archives documenting the history of the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Third and most important, he is more concerned with the changing social mores regarding the drug than with the development of legal prohibition. He argues that law is often a poor "historical marker of change," because the real action occurs in the interactions of physicians, pharmaceutical companies, druggists, and users (p. 4).	2
Austrian physician Carl Koller first reported that cocaine could be used as an anesthetic in 1884, and within a few years American physicians were using the drug widely not only as an anesthetic but also as a "tonic" and a sinus remedy. At a time when few drugs worked reliably, the American medical profession, eager to establish its special expertise, emphasized the virtues of "scientific drug development" through laboratory research (p. 14). Cocaine became one of the first exemplars.	. . .