Skip to main content

The timeline can be navigated by dragging the pointer on the timeline bar, located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile. To filter by a specific topic, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. To learn more, click “Read More” below.

Read More
A pile of dried green and brown coca leaves on a clear white background.
Dried coca leaves. (Photo: Bachelot Pierre J-P)

Cocaine first isolated as a drug from the coca plant.

1850

DRUG
INDG
TFCM
PHA
MED
Dried coca leaves. (Photo: Bachelot Pierre J-P)

Coca is a plant native to the highlands in Peru and has been long used as a stimulant and for health support by Indigenous communities there. It will begin to be used in Western biomedicine starting in the 1880s.