Ben Masel Civil Rights Activist Dead of Lung Cancer

Another victim of Harvey Wiley's Tobacco-cigarette agricultural mercantilism

http://host.madison.com/news/local/article_68fbe4a4-7385-11e0-b755-001cc4c002e0.html

Ben Masel, prominent marijuana activist and professional rabble rouser, died Saturday from complications due to lung cancer. He was 56.

Diagnosed in January, Masel had recently made it through 25 radiation treatments for the disease, but was too weak to face chemotherapy. He died just before 9 a.m., surrounded by family at a nearby hospice center.

"He made a point of living at the front lines and fighting for his rights," said Semilla Anderson, Masel's daughter. "He will be remembered for that."

Masel was born in the Bronx and grew up in New Jersey. He moved to Madison in 1971 and quickly became a fixture of the counter-culture, known specifically for acts of civil disobedience in the cause of legalizing pot.

For the past 10 years he served as the vice president of the state chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Masel was the state director for six years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

And in truth, when news broke last month that Masel had lung cancer, there were many who thought it made sense. After all, he spent a lifetime smoking cigarettes and was, by his own admission, a "heavy" marijuana smoker.

But friends and family hope that people will remember that Masel stood for a lot more than just one controversial cause.

"He wasn't just some pothead," said Sal Serio, a longtime friend. "He respected the constitution. He respected the system. And he fought to make sure others did too."

In fact, Masel made his living fighting those who tried to limit personal freedoms and rights. He was, for lack of a better term, a professional activist.

Jeff Scott Olson, Masel's attorney for the past 20 years, said his client focused mainly on challenging limitations to free speech and right to assemble. Whenever police departments or cities tried to stop him from collecting signatures or protesting, he would sue. And according to Olson, he almost always won.

Said Amy Gros-Louis, a friend of 25 years, "Ben knew the laws better than the police did."

Masel often joked that his method of making a living offered a "great hourly rate if you can wait forever to get paid." Masel joked a lot; it's one of the things people say about him most.

He was a perennial candidate for elected office. He ran for Dane County Sheriff once; governor and senator too.

And he was a protester to the end. Even in his weakened state, Masel managed to show up at the Capitol during the month-long protest in March.

But behind all of that was a funny and decent man. He may have looked like a graying lion, but friends said he was a gentleman. "He was always courteous and reasonable," Olson said. "And that was because he was always ready to give someone the chance to change his mind."

Said Serio, "He was a special person. He will be missed."

I was privilaged to have known him via attending NORML conferences since the late 1980s.

I was always amazed at the propensity of people as intelligent as Ben, taking up the Tobacco-cigarette habit, despite all that has been known and revealed about the dangers.

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Coca as Tobacco Habit Cure

Two Leaves with Historically Parallelling Uses-

one getting a head start internationally due to it being less volatile then the other leaf, and thereby being easier adaptable to remaining sufficently fresh on the long ocean voyages back to the 'Old World'.

Tobacco becomes a major international commodity by the 1600s, whereas Coca does not begin to so make it big until the 1860s with its formulation and marketing as Vin Mariani, initially sold as an energizer for overworked, overstressed Parisian opera performers, and inspiring other such Coca leaf derived herbal products as other Coca beverages, lozenges, found to have numerious therapeutic virtues- including as a substitute for other substances with similar uses, particularly Tobacco.
Writing about Vin Mariani's use:

“I have also employed it in cases, happily rare in our army, of chronic alcoholism resulting from the abuse of brandy, absinthe or strong liquors. The produced all the excitement sought by drinkers, but had at the same time a sedative influence on their nervous systems. I have frequently seen hardened drinkers renounce their fatal habit and return to a healthy condition." "I have also used to save smokers of exaggerated habits, from nicotinism. A few glasses of taken in small doses, either pure or mixed with water, acted as a substitute for pipes and cigars, because the smokers found in it the cerebral excitement which they sought in tobacco, wholly preserving their intellectual faculties."

-- Dr. Liberman and Villeneuve

And writing, in an article by a Dr. F.E. Stewart appearing in the September 19, 1885 Philadelphia Medical Times, about a newer form of Coca leaf products intriduced by the 1880s- Coca leaf smokables- cigars, cheroots and even cigarettes.

"Coca has been used with great success in the treatment of the opium habit, it is also an excellent substitute for Tobacco [emphasis added]. It has been successfully used in dyspepsia, flatulency, colic, gastralgia, enteralgia, hysteria, hypochondria, spinal irritation, idiopathic convulsions , nervous erethism, and in the debility following severe acute affections. As it is a valuable restorative agent, checking tissue-waste, it is also a useful remedy in consumption [?] and wasting diseases generally. It is also of value in the nervous forms of sick-headache, migraine. It is also said to be an aphrodisiac." -- Dr. F.E. Stewart appearing in the September 19, 1885 Philadelphia Medical Times

Reporting on several cases of experiences with smoking Coca, Stewart found that most found them useful, with a high percentage finding Coca cigars as useful for stemming depression -- the "blues" -- and as a mild stimulant. Citing one example of a leading Wilmington, Delaware physician:

"After dinner, he smoked a couple of the cigars, with the effect that the blues were expelled and he felt the exhilarating effect of the drug in the same manner as after a dose of the wine. It is his opinion that the effect of the cigars is milder than that of the wine, but he is satisfied that he experienced the peculiar power of the coca by smoking it."

Citing others, a man suffering dyspepsia -- a digestive disorder -- and its attendant depression:

"smoked the cigars...the result being to dispel the depressed feeling and remove the fullness experienced after each meal. Repeated experiments confirm this. As coca is said to stimulate the gastric nerves and greatly facilitate digestion, the above experiment seems to prove that the cigar has a similar effect."

These experiments included Dr. Stewart's own use. Writing upon his personal discovery of Coca leaf smoking as a treatment for hay fever:

Personally, I have found the effect of smoking coca leaves to bear out the statement that the drug produces a general excitation of the circulatory and nervous systems. Smoking and inhaling the smoke of one or two cigars will increase my own pulse rate some eight or ten beats to the minute.

It certainly relieves the scene of fatigue. Smoked at night, in my own case and in the cases of several of my patients, it produces wakefulness similar to strong coffee. The exaltation produced by it does not seem to be followed by any feeling of languor or depression. I find it a relief after a full meal, like a good tobacco cigar. It seems to impart increased vigor to the muscular system as well to the intellect, with an indescribable feeling of satisfaction. I have never experienced any intoxicating effects from smoking it.

Dr. Bartholow says that coca, as in the case with tea and coffee, acts as an indirect nutrient by checking waste, and hence a less amount of food is necessary to maintain the bodily functions; and as I have just learned, in a letter from Messrs. Parke, Davis and Company, that "a Mr. Stevens, a citizen of Abilene, Kansas, who was afflicted with hay fever, and was about to go to the mountains, has concluded to remain at home, having obtained relief from the use of cigarettes of coca. Every morning he uses a cigarette and perfect relief. He uses three per day.

Information on Coca leaf smokables, their history and decline is rare- for records showing sales or later accounts are generally inaccessible.

As these even included a pipe mixture, described in its day with the misnomer as a "smoking Tobacco", Coca leaf smoking presented some interesting parallels, for one the possibility they were a more benign substitute to smoke then Tobacco.

Among “chewers” of these respective agricultural commodities, oral cancer is common with those using Tobacco, yet its rare among chewers of Coca.

Among "smokers" of these plant substances, Virginia Bright Leaf Tobacco is long associated with lung cancer- far longer then commonly thought, significently pre-dating the official U.S. government acknowledgment of 1964- for instance, Harvey Wiley warned about it in Good Housekeeping reportedly as early as 1916, and with the correlation even noted on the floor of the U.S. Senate during the 1914 debates upon the Harison 'Narcotic' Tax Act signed by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, December 17, of that year.

The Coca leaf smokables were introduced only about 30 years before this 1914 ban, hence having less of a history to be fully aware of their long term chronic effects, though no recognized such corelation. Research upon this appears non-existent- baring any possible secret research, much like the cigarette companies' purported non-study of the pharmacological properties of nicotine.

In any event, either smoked, or drank as a beverage or some other oral means, Coca's effectiveness as a Tobacco substitute was recognized, as evidenced by the positive accounts as the preceeding, and the type of 'misunderstanding' that began being peddled by the latter 1880s.

An example of that mindset was the anonymously written June 12, 1891 Atlanta Constitution article “What's in Coca-Cola? A Popular Drink Which Is Said to Foster the Cocaine Habit”, in a virtual monologue (reproduced in its entirety as reported) between two individuals, described only as a "thoughtful citizen" and a "gentleman":

Thoughtful Citizen: I want to call your attention to a very vicious and pernicious thing which is going on in this and almost every other town," said a thoughtful citizen yesterday'

Gentleman: What is that?

Thoughtful Citizen: The drug stores and the soda founts are selling enormous quantities of something they call coca cola. It is said to relieve nervousness, and "that tired feeling" and all that sort of thing, and people are drinking it a dozen times a day. I am told by a physician that the ingredient which makes coca cola so popular is cocaine. There is evidently enough of it in the drink to affect and it is insidiously but surely getting thousands of people into the cocaine habit, which is ten times worse than alcoholism and is bad as the morphine habit. It is an awful drug and the victims of it are slaves. I have seen it!"

And here the gentleman shuddered.

Thoughtful Citizen: "A friend of mine was a victim of it," he continued, "and he killed himself before my eyes. He got so under the power of the cocaine habit that he saw he could not stop it, and he took a pistol and ended his life. "I am confident that a chemical analysis of coca cola would show the presence of cocaine. A physician tells me that is the ingredient which makes it popular, and it seems to me that it is a matter which the board of health ought to look into."

This anti-Coca mindset also appeared in medical publications- again, interestingly, by the anonymous. According to such an anonymous "letter to the editor" -- lacking even a city of origin -- appearing in the August, 1897 The Druggists' Circular and Chemical Gazette at page 1xxxv:

I [sic] know, therefore, whereof I speak, when I point out the awful danger threatened by the popular sale and use of such drinks as are founded upon the support of the coca leaf and the kola nut, and the catarrh snuff containing pure cocaine. Cocaine is not a safe drug for self-administration, in any way [emphasis added], and what then can be said of its use in ignorance, under a delusion that it is a tonic to nerve and stomach, and heart, administered at soda fountains, and out in chewing gum, to give strength to some organ.

This blurring of Coca and sniffed or injected cocaine also appeared in various pharmacy journals, as with this following April 1897 piece from the same – and again, anonymous -- "The Cocaine Habit":

If one may believe but a tithe of the reports which have lately been made from various quarters, the cocaine habit is spreading to an alarming extent. This habit is one so disastrous in its results as to excite the gravest concern of all those who have had the least sense of sympathy with their fellowmen; those upon whom it becomes flexed sink to depths of physical and mental degradation not sounded by even the devotees of opium. Physicians are doubtless responsible for some of the spread of this frightful evil; in treating disturbances of the nasal passages they have used this agent as a palliative, often placing it in the hands of the patient to be employed at pleasure. As it cannot be expected to have any real curative action, its frequent application as a measure of temporary relief may be expected to follow, and its constitutional effect will soon become pronounced. But the chief cause is presumably to be found in the placing of the drug before the nostrum-taking public in the guise of catarrh "cures" and the like. The use of such preparations is manifestly fraught with the gravest danger, as the self-prescriber has no warning as to the risk he is incurring The question of prohibiting the sale of the drug in any form, "patent" or otherwise, excepting under suitable stringent regulations, is attracting legislative attention in Illinois. A bill is to be, or possibly already is, introduced in the Legislature for this purpose, and the local government of Chicago has been considering the matter independently. All reputable druggists may be expected to cordially favor such a movement wherever it may take form. And now that the note of alarm has been so strongly sounded, they may be expected to exercise renewed care as to the chance of placing in the hands of a lay customer a drug which is none too safe even in the hands of the physicians. And this warning may be extended to the parent drug, the use of which, especially in wines, has become popular during late years, and is asserted to be on the increase. It must always be borne that the use of any drug of this nature is attended with the risk of the formation of a "habit," and the responsibility for the employment of such agents should rest with the physician and not the pharmacist [emphasis added].

Such reflected the fear of Coca in the portion of the U.S. where it was enjoying its greatest popularity growth- the southeastern U.S. where Tobacco is 'King'.

Such a geographically based fear was evident through the post 1903 national campaign to ultimately supress Coca- an agricultural commodity that at that time was otherwise destined for even greater international commercae popularity, given the United State's takeover of the project to construct a Panama Canal, which once completed would have significently shortened the shipping of Coca from ports on South America's Pacific coast to northern Atlantic markets, and which was completed and opened to traffic in 1914, the year of the Harrison 'Narcotic' Act banning Coca.

It was evident in the 1908 'Homes' Commission.

During the past decade soda fountain specialties containing caffeine, extract of kola nut and extract of coca leaf, the active property of which is cocaine, have been offered in considerable quantities and, due to extensive and attractive advertising, both as beverages and as headache remedies and nerve tonics, their sale has assumed large proportions.

The first appearance of preparations of this type was in the South in the eighties, their importation following the success which Moxie had attained in the East, though this particular drink was of an entirely different character. From the South the demand spread in other sections and the number of products has increased until the present time, there are probably over one hundred of them bottled and sold all over the United States.

The greatest demand in still in the South, however, almost every drug store, confectionery shop, and fruit stand has its favorite products on sale. -- 1908 U.S.D.A. report to the U.S. Congress in a President's Homes Commission "Report on Soft-Drinks Containing Caffeine and Extracts of Coca Leaf and Kola Nuts”, transmitted on October 21, 1908

U.S.D.A. Chief of Drug Division Lyman F. Kebler, M.D.:

The USDA crusade against Coca or cocaine in any amount particularly ironic was the particular medicinal use of Coca the USDA was to reserve its fury for: Coca as a Tobacco substitute!

According to the 1910 U.S.D.A. Farmer's Journal article "Habit-Forming Agents: Their Indiscriminate Sale and Use A Menace to the Public Welfare":

There are quite a number of so-called tobacco habit cures on the market.

The USDA here wrote "so-called tobacco habit cures.." in refusing to acknowledge the utility it was here condemning, continuing:

All of them are ineffective, and some contain cocain in one form or another, which at once indicates the purpose of the promoter of the remedy. Instead of eradicating what is commonly believed to be a comparatively harmless habit, there is grave danger of fastening a pernicious drug habit upon the user.

Examples of preparations of this character recently examined and found to contain cocain and caffein derivatives are Coca-Bola, Tobacco Bullets, and Wonder Workers. The Coca Bola is marketed by Dr. Charles L. Mitchell, of "Philadelphia, and the Tobacco Bullets by the Victor Remedy Company, now the Blackburn Remedy Company, of Dayton, Ohio, while the Wonder Workers were produced by George S. Beck, of Springfield, Ohio.

This USDA reluctance to openly acknowledge Coca's utility as a Tobacco substitute contrasts with an article in the Journel of the American Medical Association, at least for those who had formed (or would be likely to form) the habit for cocaine- what ever this may have exactly meant - dated January 1, 1910 by E.F. Ladd, a chemist at the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, at pages 63-64 of Volume LIV, Number 1 of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), under the heading Pharmacology, titled “Coca Bola and Oxy-Tonic: Two Nostrums Exposed by the Chemists of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station”

COCA BOLA

"We have recently had occasion to examine a sample of Coca Bola, a product labeled as having been produced by Charles L. Mitchell, M.D., Philadelphia, and the face label bears the following statement:

Each ounce contains 0.71 grams of cocain. A chewing paste of leaves of the cocoa [sic] plant, combined with other valuable tonics. The directions for use say coca-bola is made in the form of flat cakes or plugs divided into squares and should be used by chewing one of the small squares marked on the plug and swallowing the saliva.

They further say it should be used at occasional intervals as needed throughout the day. To get its full effect it will be necessary to use several squares. They further say:

"Although a powerful muscular or nervous tonic, coca-bola has no evil after-effects, and hence is far superior to any other stimulant in the material medica"

Now this information given out in the advertising which accompanies each package is, it would seem, intended to give the impression that this product is an entirely harmless one; in other words, that a preparation containing cocain as an active constituent, is to be generally recommended for use without any caution as to the harm that may come from forming a habit for cocain. They further say:

"A small portion chewed occasionally acts as a powerful tonic to the muscular and nervous system, enabling the chewer to perform additional labor, and also relieves fatigue and exhaustion without evil after effects. It contains no injurious ingredients and is perfectly harmless."

So we might quote from the circular which is sent out by a man who claims to be a physician, urging, as it were, on the people the use of a product of this kind, which, as has clearly been shown, must in the end result in the formation of the cocain habit, if not in the complete demoralization and degradation of the individual himself.

The laws of North Dakota prohibit the sale of any compound or product in the state which contains cocaine in any form. It further prohibits the refilling of a physician’s prescription that contains cocain, and yet a product of this kind, it would seem from information that has been gathered, is sold directly to the customer, although it is true that the proprietor of the product maintains that it is now sold only to physicians.

In a letter under date of Aug. 19, 1909, signed by Charles L. Mitchell, M.D., he says:

September 13, 1909
E.F. Ladd, North Dakota Agriculture College, N.D.

Dear Sir;

Your favor of September 7th duly received for which please accept my thanks. Owing to the “crank’ legislation of many states we have discontinued the manufacturer of all coca and cocaine preparations.

Any “fool” druggist of your state who gets or sells an old package of our coca-bola does so at his own risk, as necessarily, having been put out some time ago, there is no guarantee, and we will not protect him.

The people are getting a little sense into their heads, however, gradually, and they will sometime realize that preparations of both coca and cocain have an honest and legitimate use by the medical profession. Your state law is silly and on par with the 9-foot bed sheet laws of Texas and Oklahoma. Of course, your duty is to enforce the law, not to criticize it. I can do that.

I am, ours very truly
Charles L. Mitchell, M.D.

A letter of this kind needs no comment, and a product of this kind, in the judgment of the writer, can only be sent out for malicious purposes and its sale is illegal in North Dakota. We warn the public against either handling the same or using the same, if they would avoid the formation of a serious drug-habit and one that must result in positive injury to our people.

This product, put in the form of a gum, would easily take the place – for one who had formed the habit for cocain – of tobacco; and it might be made to take the place of chewing gum with young people who would be entirely innocent of the intentional use of any such preparation, not knowing the evil effects that would come from its continued use.

In the judgment of the writer, no man who will allow his name to be connected with a scheme of this kind should be permitted to disgrace the profession of medicine by using the title M.D.

L.D. Ladd’s above closing words are perversely ironic given this ‘fear’ over Coca’s displacement of Tobacco, with its basis upon confusing the abuse of concentrated cocaine sniffing powders and injections with Coca leaf and extracts of comparable low potency and how this would completely disregard these two different plant commodities’ relative health effects.


Coca Come Back
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2009/02/coca-come-back.html

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100 Yrs Ago- Wiley's 1906 Act Inspired Massachusetts MJ Prohibition

According to researcher Dale Gierlinger, the first U.S. State to ban MJ -- without a prescription -- was Massachusetts with its 1911 statutes' requirment of such for any of the substances listed in Harvey Wiley's 1906 U.S. 'Pure' Foods & Drugs Act's inconsistent labeling requirement list (of essentually habit-forming agents other then caffeine and nicotine).

alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine, chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide, or any derivative or preparation of any such substances contained therein

opium, morphine, heroin, codeine, cannabis indica, cannabis sativa, or any other hypnotic drug or any salt, compound or preparation of said substances is kept .

Richard M. Evans, a Northampton lawyer and the author of H1371, the Cannabis Regulation and Taxation Act, who blogs at www.cantaxreg.com, writes:

http://www.milforddailynews.com/opinion/x1336254162/Evans-100-years-of-marijuana-prohibition

One hundred years ago today, Massachusetts Governor Eugene Foss signed into law Chapter 372 of the Acts of 1911, "An act relative to the issuance of search warrants for hypnotic drugs and the arrest of those present." Since then, marijuana has been illegal in Massachusetts, although the voters reduced possession of a small amount to a civil infraction in 2008. Remarkably, the 1911 law was the first state prohibition of marijuana in the United States.

Steve Elliott of Toke of the Town writes:

http://www.theweedblog.com/april-29th-marks-100th-anniversary-of-first-marijuana-prohibition/

Friday marks an unhappy anniversary in hemp history. On April 29, 1911, Massachusetts enacted the first state law making it illegal to sell or possess cannabis without a prescription, becoming the first U.S. state to institute marijuana prohibition.

Violators of the new law were subject to a $100 fine and up to six months in jail, and just being present in the same room with marijuana could get you three months, according to cannabis historian Dale Gieringer of California NORML.

Ironically, marijuana was merely collateral damage of the Massachusetts law, which was aimed primarily at other “hypnotic” drugs such as opium, morphine and heroin. Abuse of opiate painkillers had become a concern among reformers and temperance advocates in the early 20th century, and cannabis was added to the list “for the sake of completeness,” since it was also a hypnotic palliative commonly found in pharmacies.

'Collateral' insofar as being included in the list of substances in the 1911 Massachusetts statute.

A portion of chapter 372, acts of 1911, entitled, "An Act relative to the issuance of search warrants for hypnotic drugs, and the arrest of those present," is as follows: —

Section 1. If a person makes complaint under oath to a police, district or municipal court, or to a trial justice or justice of the peace authorized to issue warrants in criminal cases, that he has reason to believe that opium, morphine, heroin, codeine, cannabis indica, cannabis sativa or any other hypnotic drug or any salt, compound or preparation of said substances is kept . . .

Section 2. Whoever is so present where any of the aforesaid drugs is found shall be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars or by imprisonment in the house of correction for three months.

Section 3. Whoever, not being a manufacturer or jobber of drugs, wholesale druggist, registered pharmacist, registered physician, registered veterinarian, registered dentist, registered nurse or an employee of an incorporated hospital, or otherwise entitled by law to have possession of any of the above mentioned drugs, is found in possession thereof, except by reason of a physician's prescription, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or by imprisonment for six months in the house of correction.

opium, morphine, heroin, codeine, cannabis indica, cannabis sativa, or any other hypnotic drug or any salt, compound or preparation of said substances- 1911 Massachusetts statute

alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine, chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide or any derivative or preparation of any such substances contained therein- 1906 U.S. Food and Drugs Act (includes alcohol only for drugs and not for foods)

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Coca Wine Versus Tobacco Cigarettes

the fluidextract of coca in a glass of sherry wine, taken immediately before the curtain rises, will do much to secure a satisfactory control of the voice during the performance.

Chronic laryngitis is a chronic inflammation of the mucous membrane of the larynx.

Etiology.—It is generally the result of faulty use of the voice by singers or public speakers, and also of excessive smoking, especially cigarette smoking. The smoking of cigarettes is particularly injurious, not on account of the paper wrappers or any peculiarity of tobacco, but from the habit all cigarette smokers soon acquire of inhaling the smoke and bringing it directly into contact with the sensitive mucous membrane of the larynx. It is the very "mildness" of the smoke from cigarettes, in comparison with cigar smoke or that of a pipe, that makes them more injurious. The convenience and cheapness of cigarettes also causes the cigarette smoker to light a cigarette whenever he has a few moments to spare and under circumstances when he would not think of smoking a cigar or a pipe, the ill effects of which are generally confined to the pharynx. Dusty occupations and the frequent drinking of undiluted distilled liquors are also causes of the disease, while the affection is sometimes simply the expression of the rheumatic diathesis. The presence of tumors inside the larynx usually is the result rather than the cause of chronic laryngitis.

Symptoms.—The voice, as a rule, is chronically hoarse, but the degree of hoarseness varies materially from time to time. In singers the injury to the voice will be manifested in loss of range, diminished endurance, and loss of control. As the disease advances, all vocal efforts will be obviously strained and labored. Cough is by no means a constant symptom. The secretion is at no time very great in amount and diminishes as the disease advances. It is thick, starch-like, and tenacious. Small amounts of mucus frequently collect in the interarytenoid space and, being suddenly detached by coughing, are thrown out through the mouth to a considerable distance, while little bridges of mucus are sometimes seen with the laryngoscope extending from cord to cord. There is a constant feeling of constriction, as of a foreign body in the air-passages. Upon inspection certain portions of the mucous membrane of the larynx appear redder than normal; and sometimes the entire mucous membrane of the larynx is of a uniform red color, with the exception of the cords, which may be somewhat lighter in color than the surrounding parts. The mobility of the cords is frequently impaired, either from swelling of the mucous membrane covering the arytenoids or from slight muscular pain. Erosion of the interarytenoid space is frequently seen.

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Coca Smokables FE Stewart

COCA-LEAF CIGARS AND CIGA-
RETTES.


BY F. E. STEWART, M.d., PH.G.,
(CTan o/1Syq.)
Of Philadelphia.


I have been experimenting for some time with the leaf of Erythroxylon Coca in the form of a cigar—first, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the drug would thus produce its physiological effects, and, secondly, in view of a new therapeutic application. It is too soon yet to express a positive opinion in regard to the latter, but I have had sufficient experience with them to say something about the former; and as I find that others are already commencing to enter this field, I may be excused for calling the attention of the profession at this early date, my excuse being that I wish to receive what credit may accrue from my share in their introduction.

Some time after I commenced my experiments I found that Dr. Lewis Lewis, of this city, was employing coca in the form of a cigarette, in the treatment of throat affections, with success, and, as he says that he has been using the drug in this way for nine years, he is entitled, certainly, to the credit of priority.

Dr. Lewis's cigarettes are composed partly of coca- and partly of tobacco-leaf. This has its advantages and disadvantages. Without discussing this point, however, I employed a cigar made of pure coca-leaf, with a wrapper of mild imported tobacco of fine quality, and a cigarette of pure coca-leaf containing no tobacco, wrapped with the best quality of rice paper. Those who do not object to the tobacco can use the cigars, while those who have objections to it can employ the cigarette; while for those who object to the tobacco wrapper and the paper wrapper also, I prepare a " smoking tobacco " of pure cocaleaf, without admixture of any kind, which may be smoked in a pipe.

Coca is too well known to the profession to make it necessary for anything more than the briefest description of the plant, its history, or its virtues.

The Erythroxylon Coca grows in moist and woody regions on the eastern slope of the Andes, from two thousand to ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, and is highly valued and cultivated by the natives of Peru, Chili, and Bolivia, who make great use of it as a medicine and as an article of diet. It answers as a substitute for the tea, coffee, tobacco, hashish, opium, etc., of other nations. The natives masticate the dried leaves with finely powdered chalk, or with a highly alkaline substance prepared from roasted potatoes and the ashes of various plants, and which they call llipta. It is said that its use enables them to endure fatigue and exertion for many hours, and even for several days, with but little nourishment of any other kind, and while under its influence they are said to perform prodigies of labor.

Let me compare, therefore, the action of these cigars with that said to be produced by the drug, not only by the natives, but by Bartholow, Wood, the United States Dispensatory, the National Dispensatory, and other authorities equally well known, who are investigating the properties of this remarkable drug.

First, all authorities agree that the use of coca, either in the leaf, fluid extract, or wine, is followed by a feeling of contentment and of well-being; the sense of fatigue is removed: drowsiness is experienced for a brief period, but is soon followed by wakefulness and increased mental activity. The celebrated pedestrian Weston, having learned their powers, was detected in the use of coca-leaves during one of his extraordinary feats in London. The question, then, is, does coca, smoked, produce these effects?

I have testimony as to the feeling of contentment and well-being. Dr. M.. of Wilmington, Delaware, one of the leading physicians of that State, made some experiments in this direction for me. Being thoroughly acquainted with the effects of the drug, having frequently used it in connection with his extensive practice, and often experienced its effect on himself, what he has to say must be received as of weight. At the time of the experiment which was tried upon himself he was feeling somewhat depressed—had the blues, in other words—owing to the absence of his family and the loneliness of his house without them. After dinner he smoked a couple of the cigars, with the effect that the "blues " were expelled, and he felt the exhilarating effect of the drug in the same manner as after a dose of the wine. It is his opinion that the effect of the cigars is milder than that of the wine, but he is satisfied that he experienced the peculiar power of the coca by smoking it. He will continue his experiments in other cases. *****

Personally, I have found the effect of smoking coca-leaves to bear out the statements that the drug produces a general excitation of the circulatory and nervous systems. Smoking and inhaling the smoke of one or two cigars will increase my own pulse-rate some eight or ten beats to the minute. It certainly relieves the sense of fatigue. Smoked at night, in my own case and in the cases of several of my patients, it produces wakefulness, similar to strong coffee.

The exaltation produced by it does not seem to be followed by any feeling of languor or depression. I find it a relief after a full meal, like a good tobacco cigar. It seems to impart increased vigor to the muscular system as well as to the intellect, with an indescribable feeling of satisfaction. I have never experienced any intoxicating effect from smoking it. Dr. Bartholow says that coca, as is the case with tea and coffee, acts as an indirect nutrient, by checking waste, and hence a less amount of food is found necessary to maintain the bodily functions; and it is probable that some of the constituents of coca are utilized in the economy as food, and that the retardation of tissue waste is not the sole reason why work may be done by the same person better with than without it; and I have just learned, in a letter from Messrs. Parke, Davis & Co., that "a Mr. Stevers, a citizen of Abilene, Kansas, who is afflicted with hay fever, and was about to go to the mountains, has concluded to remain at home, having obtained relief from the use of cigarettes of coca. Every morning

he uses a cigarette, and finds perfect relief. ~~He uses three per day, and also has used an application of two-per-cent. solution of muriate, but finds that the cigarettes relieve him quicker and the effects last longer."

To sum up, therefore, coca smoked seems to produce the same effect on the system as coca taken internally in the form of fluid extract, wine, or elixir, but not in such a marked degree. Coca itself is known to be stimulant, tonic, and restorative to the system in the treatment of various diseases marked by debility and exhaustion. Nervous debility and exhaustion in all its forms, whether caused by diseases or excesses, are said to be relieved by it. Fatigue disappears, to be followed by a feeling of indescribable calm and satisfaction, increased strength of brain and muscle, and desire for mental and muscular occupation.

Coca has been used with great success in the treatment of the opium habit. It is also an excellent substitute for tobacco. It has been successfully used in dyspepsia, flatulency, colic, gastralgia, enteralgia, hysteria, hypochondria, spinal irritation, idiopathic convulsions, nervous erethism, and in the debility following severe acute affections. As it is a valuable restorative agent, checking tissue-waste, it is a useful remedy in consumption and wasting diseases generally. It is also of value in the nervous forms of sick headache, viigraine. It is said to be an aphrodisiac.

Now, my object in publishing this article is to introduce coca-leaf cigars to the notice of the profession. I have furnished what information I have to prove the cigars are capable of producing the action of the drug. In my own mind I have no doubts on the subject, though

1 the effects are milder than those resulting from the employment of the fluid preparations of coca internally. I have also summed up the properties said to be possessed by coca as a therapeutic agent. I have produced evidence, in addition to that furnished by Dr. Lewis, that it is of value in the treatment of hay fever; and, as it is important that the true value of this form of using coca-leaf should be known, I have had some made, and I will send samples to members of the profession, free of charge, who may desire to test them, and will publish the results, favorable or otherwise, in the medical press. I have no proprietary interest in them, nor have I copyrighted this article concerning them. The idea of coca in this form, and all information concerning it, is free to the use of the profession.—{Phila. Medical Times, Sept. 19th,

'1885.)

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Coca Cigars Cheroots and Cigarettes

COCA CIGARETTES.

There Cigarettes are made with are the finest green leaves, and will thus be found to produce, in a convenient and agreeable form, the full anicsthctic effects of the drug.

Ci'ea Cigarettes will, by the sedative action of the fumes upoa the pharynx, larynx, and air-passages, relieve coughing, irritation of Be throat, and difficulty of breathing.

For the relief of Asthma, Hay-fkver, Chronic Cnocn, Drsram, and Irhit-atiox Of The Throat, these Cigarettes will prove Terr invaluable.

Cuca Cigarettes are put up in boxes at 3s. each.

THOMAS CHEISTY & Co., 155, Fenchurch Street,

_________ LONDON, F..C. ,

COCA CHEROOTS AND CIGARETTES.

For the Relief of Asthma, Hay Fever, Chronic Cough, Etc.

The beneficial effects reported from the use of coca leaves in the form of cheroots and cigarettes for the relief of asthmatic difficulties, irritative cough, etc., have induced us to prepare and offer them to the profession. They are made of coca leaves mixed with an equal portion of mild tobacco. The flavor and aroma are described by those who have used them as very agreeable. They produce a sedative effect on the pharynx, larynx, and air passages, which results frequently in the relief of irritative cough and difficult breathing. Impending attacks of asthmatic dyspnoea are said to be frequently warded off by their use, and chronic sufferers have been able thus to secure comfort. The effect seems to be due to an anaesthetic action of the smoke upon the mucous membrane with which it comes in contact. The peripheral irritation, which results in the spasms either of dyspnoea or of cough, is thus removed, and with removal of the cause the effect disappears. Prices and literature furnished on application.

Coca Cigarettes for Asthma and Coughs.

Cigarettes made of tobacco mixed with an equal portion of crushed leaves of erythroxylon coca, give much relief in asthma, hay fever, and chronic cough. The flavor is quite agreeable and a very pleasant aroma pervades the room. We know a lady who affirms that one of these cigarettes has many times saved her from an impending attack of asthmatic dyspnoea. We have frequently suggested its use to old smokers who were troubled with "cough," with satisfactory results. We are in possession of numerous testimonies to its efficacy in cases of chronic bronchitis of old people, difficulty of breathing, and irritative cough, when independent of organic pulmonary trouble. Its sedative action on the larynx and pharynx is quite remarkable; and it certainly seems to allay spasm, and to produce, in a lesser degree, the same results obtainable by hydrochlorate of cocaine on these parts. It is now nine years since we first suggested this use of coca; and we have no reason to alter the recommendation of its trial.

Coca Cigarettes.

In these columns (March World, 1885, page 78) Dr. Lewis called attention to his experience with cigarettes made from equal parts of tobacco and coca leaves, to be used for the relief of asthma, hay fever and chronic cough. Messrs. Parke, Davis & Co., of Detroit, Mich., have now manufactured these and placed them on the market at the low price of ten cents per package of ten cigarettes. It is hoped that the lot of the hay fever sufferer will be materially improved by means of them.

—Coca-leaf cigarettes are rapidly coming into use. Coca when smoked, seems to produce the same effect on the system as coca taken internally, in the form of fluid extract, wine or elixir, but as would be expected, not in such a marked degree. Coca cigarettes are an excellent substitute for tobacco, but it is very doubtful whether they are less injurious than tobacco.

Coca Cigarettes.—Dr. Nachtigall confers on the excellent properties of coca, especially of the wine, inalleviating hunger, stimulating the system, etc., which properties manifest themselves especially when taken while on a long march or while enduring other hardships. Later on, he recommends an entirely new preparation of coca—the cigarettes. In his discourse he says that, first of all, the very agreeable and mild taste and odor of coca, which admirably adapts it to this preparation, deserve mention. After he himself and some of his acquaintances tried them, he gave them to asthmatics; then he used them for catarrhal affections of the respiratory organs, and also for megrim of the nervous form. He is of the opinion that the good practical results which he invariably obtained were due to the anaesthetic action of the coca smoke upon the nerves of the relative mucous membrane. No disagreeable after-effects were noticed, so that persons who are susceptible to the action of nicotin in ordinary tobacco can smoke them with impunity. The doctor is convinced that these cigarettes will soon supplant those made of belladonna, hyoscyamus, stramonium, etc., and strongly urges a trial of them.—Pharmaceutical Record, June 15, 1887.

The sustaining and stimulating properties of the Coca plant have long been recognized, and in the form of wine and fluid extract it is constantly prescribed by English physicians. Dr. Nachtigal, of Stuttgart, has prepared a Coca tobacco and Coca cigarettes, in which the tobacco is entirely deprived of nicotine. These two forms, when smoked, will be found to possess all the most valuable and agreeable properties of tobacco, plus the sustaining and enlivening effects of Coca. They will be found to be a preventative against nervous headache, catarrhal symptoms, and especially in asthma, and are highly recommended by medical authorities for these complaints. The Coca cigarettes and Coca tobacco are sold by the French Hygienic Society, 56 Conduit Street, Regent Street, W. 1888 Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine

1909

the leaves of the coca-plant make the best cigarettes for asthma (Nachtigal).

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The dangers of alcoholism would be avoided if no other stimulant was taken...than...Vin Mariani

Cocaine, taken orally and dilutely in Coca beverages, as caffeine is taken by drinkers of Coffee and Tea, is not only absorbed slowly, avoiding the addictive spike of concentrated dosing, numbs the stomach, inhibiting the appetite for more.

There Is a Difference.

That there is a distinction in use and abuse, as well as a recognizable difference between a mild wine adapted for the sick, and the promiscuous use of strong drink, cannot be- better shown than through the following extract of a recent letter referring to Vin Mariani:

"The dangers of alcoholism would be avoided if no other stimulant were taken for mental or physical trials than that offered by the generous Vin Mariani.

"mesureur."

The full importance of this will be better appreciated when it is recalled that Mesureur is the Director of Hygiene and Public Health in Paris, France, and it was he who approved anl signed the radical governmental posters against alcoholism. That his favoring sentiment is accepted by those who have personally familiarized themselves with the merits of Vin Mariani is further shown by liberal commendations from many members of the most conservative of all medical societies—The Academy of Medicine o£ Paris. France—an opinion which is supplemented by a majority of professors of the Faculty of Medicine of France.—Coca Leaf, March, 1904.

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