Although cocaine (or “coke”) is often associated with its popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, the drug has in fact been around for hundreds of years via the South American coca plant. Indigenous societies often used it as an anesthetic and stimulant, effects that could be produced by chewing the plant’s leaves. Then, in the mid-1800s, a German chemist discovered and isolated the chemical in the plant that produces its intoxicating effects. He named the chemical cocaine, and it became widely used in medical and pseudo-medical applications throughout Western cultures. Over the next several decades, the drug faded in and out of popularity and eventually became a Schedule II controlled substance — it has a high potential to be abused but can be administered by a doctor in specific medical applications (notably, it is an active ingredient in some topical anesthetics).
Isolated cocaine is significantly more potent and more dangerous than chewing a simple coca leaf. Modern forms of the drug are most often sold as a fine white powder or in a rock form called crack. According to the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 2.2 million Americans currently use cocaine, nearly a quarter of which use crack.