"Cocaine users often describe the euphoric feeling as an increased sense of energy and alertness, an extremely elevated mood, and/or a feeling of supremacy. Other effects include irritability, paranoia, restlessness, and anxiety. Cocaine use is often characterized by dilated pupils, unusually high levels of energy and activity, and excited, exuberant speech. This can lead to a full-blown psychosis, in which the individual loses touch with reality and experiences auditory hallucinations. With increasing dosages or frequency of use, the risk of adverse psychological or physiological effects increases."
"Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature."
8 June 1881
A new patient today, a troubling case. One Sherlock H., a resident of B____ Street in London. Referred to me by G. Lestrade, with more than a few dark and vague warnings. "A troubled fellow," he told me, gripping me by the wrist. "Very troubled. Sad story, his."
All stories are sad if you let them go on long enough, I told him, but I took the case just the same. He had applied and been rejected from the Force more than a dozen times between 1878 and 1880.
"And now he hangs around the corridors sniffing loudly and declaring himself the greatest detective in the world," Lestrade said. "Gets into the paperwork while we're out and smears everything with tobacco and inkstains. Keeps calling the clerk-girl 'Irene' and declaring her the greatest mind of a generation and his one true equal. Terrifies her half to death, of course. She's a sweet, simple creature from Mile End and she thinks he's making fun of her. Bursts into tears the moment he walks into the reception room. We keep locking the door, but..."
What had he been rejected for, I asked. When he applied to the Force.
Lestrade snorted. "Lord. Name a habit. Gross mental incompetence, suffers from auditory hallucinations, refusal to maintain eye contact, long dirty fingernails of an opium-eater, can't run a quarter-mile without losing consciousness, completely unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Addicted to cocaine, I believe. Has been for quite some time, ever since he was sent down. Family won't see him. Wreck of a man. Absolute wreck. Used to be something of a gentleman, I'm given to understand."
