Cocaine: How Miracle Drug Nearly Destroyed Sigmund Freud, William Halsted

DR. HOWARD MARKEL:

All they saw were the good aspects. No one knew — down the road, it was very obvious when you had all these addicts that were created. And it was overprescribed, as was morphine and opium, for everything.

And it wasn't until about five or 10 or 20 years later, that people started to say, hey, everybody I know is addicted to this stuff. There was no such thing as controlled substances either. You didn't need a prescription. You could just buy it at a drugstore on your own.

It really outlines the morality play that continues to this day of every blockbuster pharmaceutical agent: This drug, when it comes out, is the greatest, the newest, the best.

And then, as we find out more and more, well, it's not so great. It has to be used under certain conditions.

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