Cocaine A Special Report

Cocaine a Special ReportIn 1982, a man--call him Tom--was hospitalized for aplastic anemia, a bone-marrow disease. Tom underwent surgery twice. He was 22 years old and psychologically normal, according to his physicians. One effect of his illness was sores in his mouth. As part of his treatment, for pain, he was given the topical anesthetic cocaine--about a third of a gram every four hours for 16 days. It got into his blood stream the same way cocaine gets into the blood stream of people who sno...