Curtis Mayfield, No Thing On Me (Cocaine Song)

Cocaine Museum @ Cusco, Peru

"Officially, coca was reserved for Inca royalty but as archaeological relics of sculptures and ceramics show, it was widely used for mystical, religious, social and medicinal purposes. It was chewed not merely for its stimulant properties - which warded off fatigue and provided the energy and strength necessary for steep walks in the thin air of their mountainous homeland - but as a kind of food, for there are vitamins and protein present in the leaves." [source]

"We have every reason to believe that pre-Inca inhabitants of Peru were familiar with Coca up to 20,000 years ago.
The most ancient evidence yet found is a ceramic fragment from the Valdivia culture which represents a face with a lump in the cheek. It was found on the coast between Ecuador and Peru, and dates back to 3000BC. 

Similar pieces have been found in upper valleys in Peru and may have been in use around 2000BC." [source]

 "In the spring of 1884, a 28-year-old Viennese neurologist named Sigmund Freud published “Über Coca,” a superb medical analysis of cocaine hydrochloride. Although the monograph was an early career milestone for the ambitious physician, it also represented a missed opportunity. Using himself as his experimental subject over several months, Freud consumed a great deal of cocaine as he recorded the drug's physiological effects and potential therapeutic uses. However, he skimmed over cocaine's most important clinical use as a local anesthetic. In a hurried last paragraph, a postscript really, Freud noted that “cocaine and its salts have a marked anesthetizing effect when brought into contact with the skin and mucous membrane in concentrated solution.Without offering any additional data or experiments, Freud merely concluded that these properties 'should make it suitable for a good many applications'". [source]

"Americans may have one John Styth Pemberton to blame for its cocaine addiction. After the war, the Civil War veteran started using morphine to kill the pain caused by his injuries – and became addicted. He read that cocaine could help cure 'morphinism', and began producing a wine-based tonic that contained coke. When Georgia banned alcohol, he mixed cocaine with cola nut extract and soda water, and – voila – Coca-Cola (shown here in a 1905 ad) was born.

Pemberton claimed his 'health drink' could cure impotence, headaches, and morphine addiction. Coca-Cola is still made from coca leaves – but the cocaine has been chemically extracted." [source]

"Evo came up from the bottom, first as a union leader, then as the leader of the coca growers federation," René Arandia, a coca growers leader, said as he took a break from a recent meeting between Mr. Morales and several hundred cocaleros, as the growers are called, in the town of Lauca Ñ. "And now he's on his way to becoming president of the republic. For us, this is a victory." [source]