In the 1970s, cocaine emerged as the fashionable new drug for entertainers and businesspeople. Cocaine seemed to be the perfect companion for a trip into the fast lane. It “provided energy” and helped people stay “up.”

At some American universities, the percentage of students who experimented with cocaine increased tenfold between 1970 and 1980.

In the late 1970s, Colombian drug traffickers began setting up an elaborate network for smuggling cocaine into the US. Source http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/cocaine/a-short-history.html