Interesting long suppressed U.N. Report on Cocaine

[Safiel]

Came across this today:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/pr/cocaine-study-supressed.html

The text of the full previously suppressed report is here, having been recently leaked:

http://file.sunshinepress.org:54445/who-unicri-cocaine-project-study-1995.pdf

I DON'T want to get into the merits or demerits of drug legalization with this thread. Rather, I wish simply to point out government suppressing reports that don't fully tow whatever line the government wishes to be towed. In this case, the U.S. has suppressed this report for thirteen years until some brave soul finally leaked it. There was no valid reason why this report should have been suppressed. The government simply found it inconvenient.

Again, this is not about drug legalization, but rather about government openness.

[Dual867PowerMac]

Came across this today:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/pr/cocaine-study-supressed.html

The text of the full previously suppressed report is here, having been recently leaked:

http://file.sunshinepress.org:54445/who-unicri-cocaine-project-study-1995.pdf

I DON'T want to get into the merits or demerits of drug legalization with this thread. Rather, I wish simply to point out government suppressing reports that don't fully tow whatever line the government wishes to be towed. In this case, the U.S. has suppressed this report for thirteen years until some brave soul finally leaked it. There was no valid reason why this report should have been suppressed. The government simply found it inconvenient.

Again, this is not about drug legalization, but rather about government openness.
I'll go further: the United States federal government is the world's biggest drug dealer and they want drugs to remain illegal in part to keep the profits high, no pun intended.

The drug war is terrorism pure and simple.

[sgdp]

I saw this spammed on my websites.

From my understanding (didn't read the whole report), they simply say that chewing the leaf is beneficial. It's just like coffee, really. We've already known that.

I don't think they're saying street drugs are healthy....

[Gabby]

Came across this today:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/pr/cocaine-study-supressed.html

The text of the full previously suppressed report is here, having been recently leaked:

http://file.sunshinepress.org:54445/who-unicri-cocaine-project-study-1995.pdf

I DON'T want to get into the merits or demerits of drug legalization with this thread. Rather, I wish simply to point out government suppressing reports that don't fully tow whatever line the government wishes to be towed. In this case, the U.S. has suppressed this report for thirteen years until some brave soul finally leaked it. There was no valid reason why this report should have been suppressed. The government simply found it inconvenient.

Again, this is not about drug legalization, but rather about government openness.

It's a UN report, not a US government report.

Would seem that it's the UN suppressing the report if anyone is. There are hundreds if not thousands of UN reports a year. They are published. Most people never give a hoot about any of them. This one was probaby just lost in the pile. To turn it into a US gov conspiracy is rediculous.

[Dancer]

I can't remember who told me about this, but I think it was a friend of mine who was special forces...

In many of these third world countries that are well known for growing cocaine, the reason they grow it is not so much to sell it to drug addicts in the United States, but many of them grow it because of the medicinal values it has in their cultures.

http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/article.aspx?id=3576

Before people became aware of the addictive properties, they used cocaine as 'the wonder drug that worked wonders...
“It is in exciting the cerebro-medullary and nervous muscular functions, in part, and partly in producing a soothing effect on the mucous membrane of the stomach, that [it] produces wonderful results in the conservation of energy,” asserted Angelo Mariani, the author of Coca and its Therapeutic Application (1896) and the man behind Vin Mariani, a then-popular concoction of coca extract and wine. He added deliriously that the drug increases longevity and promotes muscular energy, and advised its use “for stomatitis, gingivitis, aphthous ulceration . . . gastric disturbance in phthisis, and also for obesity.” Mariani declared that thousands of practitioners have endorsed this wonder drug for bronchitis, dyspnoea and even epilepsy without exerting “any injurious effect on the system.” Its anesthetic properties were helpful in delicate eye surgeries, and according to J. Leonard Corning, M.D., “this [tonic] is undoubtedly the most potent for good in the treatment of exhaustive and irritative conditions of the central nervous system.”

Some of the claims of the medicinal benefits of cocaine and extracts of the coca plant are now known to be frighteningly absurd while others may be valid. As with other illicit drugs used for recreational purposes, scientists have synthesized several useful medicinal properties of cocaine; for example, benzocaine, proparacaine and tetracaine.

They simply were working so hard on getting people to stop producing the product that they haven't built a better alternative. In third world countries, it is like mom's chicken soup...an inexpensive medicine that anyone can grow. I remember a time when it was used in hospitals to numb the nasal passages (it wasn't really that long ago).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocaine#Cocaine_as_a_local_anesthetic

Cocaine was historically useful as a topical anesthetic in eye and nasal surgery, although it is now predominantly used for nasal and lacrimal duct surgery. The major disadvantages of this use are cocaine's intense vasoconstrictor activity and potential for cardiovascular toxicity. Cocaine has since been largely replaced in Western medicine by synthetic local anaesthetics such as benzocaine, proparacaine, lignocaine/xylocaine/lidocaine, and tetracaine though it remains available for use if specified. If vasoconstriction is desired for a procedure (as it reduces bleeding), the anesthetic is combined with a vasoconstrictor such as phenylephrine or epinephrine. In Australia it is currently prescribed for use as a local anesthetic for conditions such as mouth and lung ulcers. Some ENT specialists occasionally use cocaine within the practice when performing procedures such as nasal cauterization. In this scenario dissolved cocaine is soaked into a ball of cotton wool, which is placed in the nostril for the 10–15 minutes immediately prior to the procedure, thus performing the dual role of both numbing the area to be cauterized and also vasoconstriction. Even when used this way, some of the used cocaine may be absorbed through oral or nasal mucosa and give systemic effects.

In 2005, researchers from Kyoto University Hospital proposed the use of cocaine in conjunction with phenylephrine administered in the form of an eye drop as a diagnostic test for Parkinson's disease.[80]

[BrittleBullet]

I saw this spammed on my websites.

From my understanding (didn't read the whole report), they simply say that chewing the leaf is beneficial. It's just like coffee, really. We've already known that.

I don't think they're saying street drugs are healthy....

Yeah.
The Coca leaf which is chewed by indigenous Andeans is only a mild stimulant and doesn't have any ill effects.
Interestingly enough, what this report stated was that the occasional bump wasn't so bad either.