ABSTRACT
By the turn of the 20th century, there was a glut of cocaine on the market. Cocaine could be purchased from the local chemist, usually without a prescription. Cocaine was also sold openly in the streets. Even in cities where pharmacy sales were regulated, enforcement was lax, and there was no shortage of doctors and pharmacists willing to make money by selling drugs. There were also many patent remedies on the market that contained large amounts of cocaine. As the number of cocaine users grew, so did the number of cocaine-related deaths. In fact, the cocaine problem, when expressed as a proportion of the U.S. population, was probably worse then, than it is today.
