Freud and cocaine

When Freud was a strapping young 28 year old researcher, he did a paper on the medicinal effects of cocaine. He published this paper (the Uber Coca) in 1884. Doing experiments upon himself with cocaine, he found that "a small dose lifted me to the heights in a wonderful fashion. I am just now busy collecting the literature." He praised the substance, complaining mostly that it was too expensive. He recommended this as a medicinal drug; however, this paper would not help his career seeing as how cocaine would be denounced as a harmful substance within a few years. Later, he gave up giving cocaine to patients and wrote his most influential papers (psychoanalysis). However, it is noted that Freud was addicted to cocaine for 2 years and quit after his health began to deteriorate.