OCR Text |
Show 171 The coca addicts make up 25 or 30% of the inhabitants of the geographic areas affected by the coca habit. The intensity of the toxic effects depends primarily on the duration of the habit, and secondly on the quantity of the drug which is consumed daily. No phenomena of acquired tolerance is observed, for each individual maintains the same doses throughout his lifetime, and only in very rare cases are there tendencies toward a progressive increase. The main cause of the coca habit is the deficient production of food-stuffs in the effected regions. Cocaine has the property of suppressing the sensation of hunger. It has been demonstrated that in those provinces where, coca consumption fluctuates between 2 and 4 kilograms a year per individual, the average food ration is 767 grams a day, while in the provinces where the consumption of the drug varies between 1 and 2 kilograms a year per individual, the average food ration is 904 grams per inhabitant. Where the coca habit does not exist at all, or is very scarce, the average food ration is 1,096 grams per inhabitant. There are other factors which condition the coca habit, an important one being the invigorating or anti-fatiguing effect of cocaine, for coca is as important in suppressing fatigue as it is in suppressing hunger. The physiological effects of coca in the organism of the drug addicts are almost always stimulating ones: it increases basal metabolism and body temperature, and stimulates the cardiocircula-tory functions and those of the vegetative nervous system and the central nervous system. Description has been made of many alterations of mental activity originated by the use of coca, the most important of these being an illusory sensation of well being. The toxic effects of the coca habit are principally of a chronic nature. Acute toxic effects are rare. It has been demonstrated that the coca addicts present subnormal intelligence, deficient memory, and personality anomalies. A relationship exists between the frequency of illiterates and the consumption of coca; in the population groups where consumption is greatest there is a very high percentage of illiterates and social misfits. It has also been shown that avitaminosis and other nutritional diseases are frequent among the coca addicts. The frequency of degenerative stigmas is greater than among the population groups not affected by the coca habit. The intoxication produced by coca is one of the most important public health problems of South America and also, doubtlessly, one of the principal factors responsible for the backwardness and degeneration of the Indian race in the affected regions. The author appeals for the suppression of this collective toxicomania. |