New patterns of cocaine use: changing doses and routes.

The history of coca and cocaine use is reviewed in terms of medical and nonmedical patterns of use. Use of coca leaves and coca extract products involved daily use of no more than 200 mg to 500 mg of cocaine. When cocaine became available after 1860, daily doses increased to as much as 1,620 mg and the oral route of administration became supplemented by intranasal, injection, topical, and smoking administration. Contemporary patterns of use between 1970 and 1978 involved social-recreational intranasal doses of 1 to 4 grams per month. From 1978 to 1982, doses increased to 1 to 3 grams per week with increased use of smoking cocaine freebase. Between 1982 and 1984, episodes of concentrated binding became more common, as did the development of experimental practices including intranasal cocaine freebase and the smoking of coca paste. These patterns are discussed in terms of several variables, including purity, dosages, dose regimes, routes of administration, paraphernalia, and changing perceptions of cocaine.

Hostage hallucinations. Visual imagery induced by isolation and life-threatening stress.

The literature on hallucinatory experiences of hostage victims is reviewed. The phenomenology is examined in 30 case studies involving 31 persons, including ex-prisoners of war and victims of rape, kidnapping, terrorism, robbery, and "UFO abductions." The victims were subjected to conditions of isolation, visual deprivation, restraint on physical movement, physical abuse, and the threat of death. For eight victims, these conditions were sufficient to produce a progression of visual hallucinations from simple geometric images to complex memory images coupled with dissociation. The other 23 victims, subjected to similar conditions but without isolation and life-threatening stress, resulting from the threat of death, did not experience hallucinations. The hostage hallucinations are compared to those resulting from sensory deprivation, near fatal accidents, and other states of isolation and stress. A common mechanism of action based on entoptic phenomena and CNS excitation and arousal is suggested.

Herbal intoxication. Psychoactive effects from herbal cigarettes, tea, and capsules.

Herbal preparations, designed to be smoked or ingested for "health and happiness", are promoted as legal hallucinogens, euphoriants, and marihuana substitutes. A total of 25 psychoactive substances have been identified in these products, and a number of intoxications have resulted from their short- or long-term use. Physicians should be alerted to the nature of these effects when taking drug histories, and their possible role in the causation of medical complaints should be considered.

Cocaine self-administration in monkeys by chewing and smoking.

Two rhesus monkeys self-administered cocaine hydrochloride in a gum base vehicle on a fixed ratio 10 schedule with performance characterized by frequent pauses and increased intertrial interval responding. Three other monkeys self-administered cocaine base in lettuce cigarette vehicles in smoking performance marked by shortened puff durations. Urinary benzoyl ecgnoine levels correlated with amount of cocaine chewed or smoked. Monkeys did not prefer cocaine gum in choice tests with plain or procaine gum, but did significantly prefer cocaine cigarettes to plain cigarettes. These preliminary results emphasize the importance of route of administration in determining reinforcement efficacy of human coca use and suggest animal models for their further experimental analysis.