Cocaine is used as a local anesthetic during eye surgery. It used to be used as a painkiller. It was first isolated by German chemist Friedrich Gaedke. Cocaine used to be used to cure morphine addiction, and to a lesser extent other addictions such as tobacco addiction, alcoholism, heroin addiction, and opium addiction, but now that safer drugs have been developed for these purposes it is no longer used for this. The soda Coca-Cola was originally a medicinal beverage containing cocaine in order to cure stomach pains, but was removed because of its addictive qualities. | Cocaine is used as a local anesthetic during eye surgery. It used to be used as a painkiller. It was first isolated by German chemist Friedrich Gaedke. Cocaine used to be used to cure morphine addiction, and to a lesser extent other addictions such as tobacco addiction, alcoholism, heroin addiction, and opium addiction, but now that safer drugs have been developed for these purposes it is no longer used for this. The soda Coca-Cola was originally a medicinal beverage containing cocaine in order to cure stomach pains, but was removed because of its addictive qualities. |