Cocaine is an alkaloid obtained from leaves of the coca plant and used medically as a local anesthetic. It is also widely abused as a drug. Native Americans of the Inca Empire chewed coca leaves to obtain mild euphoria, stimulation, and alertness. The drug was first isolated in 1855 and came to be used widely as a local anesthetic in minor surgery. Cocaine has long been known as a drug of abuse, but it projected in …showed first 75 words of 587 total…

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