ABSTRACT
America currently is in an epidemic of cocaine use resulting partly from the ready availability of the “crack” form of cocaine. Popularization of use through wide publicity of celebrities using the agent has facilitated spread. Amphetamines have been used in similar epidemics and have remarkably similar effects to cocaine. Analysis of products sold on the street indicate that cocaine is often adulterated with the much less costly amphetamines and occasionally is only amphetamine. Both of these agents are popular drugs of abuse, with the majority of the amphetamines being diverted from legitimate medical supplies or synthesized in illicit American laboratories, whereas cocaine is all illicit in its supply channels, arising from the natural coca leaves grown on the slopes of the Andes in South America.
