It was used for pharmaceutical purposes until the 1914(?) drug convention which outlawed it along with opium and heroin. It was still used in dentistry and maybe as an anesthetic but not abused on a large scale like in the 80s, and snorting, chopping or IVing are just routes of administrating it, we're still talking about the same substance.
My point being that I doubt the mob, or anybody profited that much on coke because it wasn't abused on a large scale.