What is Cocaine?
Cocaine is a powerfully addictive drug, cocaine usually makes the user feel euphoric and energetic.
Cocaine is snorted, sniffed, injected, or smoked. Crack is cocaine that has been processed from cocaine hydrochloride to a free base for smoking. Cocaine and crack cocaine are powerful and extremely addictive drugs. Cocaine or crack cocaine addiction becomes compulsive and addictive because of the ensuing pleasurable feelings. Cocaine is classified as a Schedule II drug, meaning it has a very high potential for abuse and addiction. There are two primary forms of cocaine. One is the powdery type. Generally it is snorted up into the nose.
What is Crack Cocaine?
The other is crack cocaine, known as crack. Crack Cocaine is the term for the smokable form of cocaine. Crack is the street name given to the form of cocaine that has been processed into a smokable substance. Smoking crack cocaine delivers large quantities of the drug to the lungs, producing an immediate and intense euphoric feeling. The rush, or high is usually very intense, but does not last very long. The rocks of crack cocaine are ignited in a crack pipe and the ensuing vapors get deeply inhaled. Crack cocaine emerged as a major drug of abuse in the past twenty to twenty-five years. The term crack refers to the popping sound heard when it is heated. Cocaine addiction or crack cocaine addiction is usually identified with a person who is compulsively seeking and using cocaine or crack cocaine, despite the negative consequences.
Effects of Cocaine
What are the Effects of Cocaine? There can be severe medical complications associated with cocaine use. Some of the most frequent complications are cardiovascular effects, including disturbances in heart rhythm and heart attacks; respiratory effects such as chest pain and respiratory failure; neurological effects, including strokes, seizures, and headaches; and gastrointestinal complications, including abdominal pain and nausea. Cocaine use has been linked to many types of heart disease. Cocaine has been found to trigger chaotic heart rhythms, called ventricular fibrillation; accelerate heartbeat and breathing; and increase blood pressure and body temperature. Physical symptoms may include chest pain, nausea, blurred vision, fever, muscle spasms, convulsions, coma, and death.
Different routes of cocaine administration can produce different adverse effects. Regularly snorting cocaine, for example, can lead to loss of sense of smell, nosebleeds, problems with swallowing, hoarseness, and an overall irritation of the nasal septum, which can lead to a chronically inflamed, runny nose. Ingested cocaine can cause severe bowel gangrene, due
to reduced blood flow. And, persons who inject cocaine have puncture marks and “tracks,” most commonly in their forearms. Intravenous cocaine users may also experience an allergic reaction, either to the drug, or to some additive in street cocaine, which can result, in severe cases, in death. Because cocaine has a tendency to decrease food intake, many chronic cocaine users lose their appetites and can experience significant weight loss and malnourishment.
The effects of cocaine use include heart attacks, respiratory failure, strokes, and seizures. Large amounts can cause bizarre and violent behavior. In rare cases, sudden death can occur on the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter. The short-term physiological effects of cocaine include constricted blood vessels; dilated pupils; and increased temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. Large amounts (several hundred milligrams or more) intensify the user’s high, but may also lead to bizarre, erratic, and violent behavior. These users may experience tremors, vertigo, muscle twitches, paranoia, or, with repeated doses, a toxic reaction closely resembling amphetamine poisoning. Some users of cocaine report feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. In rare instances, sudden death can occur on the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest. Use of cocaine in a binge, during which the drug is taken repeatedly and at increasingly high doses, leads to a state of increasing irritability, restlessness, and paranoia. This may result in a full-blown paranoid psychosis, in which the individual loses touch with reality and experiences auditory hallucinations.
Signs of Cocaine use
It is used for snorting up the nose. The second is freebase, better known as crack cocaine, used for smoking. A small percentage of cocaine addiction is done intravenously. When cocaine is snorted, the cocaine powder gets inhaled up into the nose where it is readily absorbed into the bloodstream. Once cocaine reaches the brain, dopamine gets released, stimulating pleasurable feelings. Because it is a stimulant, cocaine has always been a major party drug. Cocaine is easy dealt on the streets because it is sold in small packets. The physical signs of cocaine abuse can vary, depending on the person. For one, cocaine acts as an appetite suppressant so cocaine abusers often aren't hungry and end up losing considerable amounts of weight. Cocaine addicts often go on binges, sometimes for several days. The path to cocaine addiction can begin with occasional use only at parties. Over time, a person's ability to choose not to take the drug gradually erodes.
Street Names
Cocaine goes by the street names of coke, snow, flake, blow and many others.
Statistics & Trends
In 2006, 6 million Americans age 12 and older had abused cocaine in any form and 1.5 million had abused crack at least once in the year prior to being surveyed. Source: National Survey on Drug Use and Health; http://www.samhsa.gov/. The NIDA-funded 2007 Monitoring the Future Study showed that 2.0% of 8th graders, 3.4% of 10th graders, and 5.2% of 12th graders had abused cocaine in any form and 1.3% of 8th graders, 1.3% of 10th graders, and 1.9% of 12th graders had abused crack at least once in the year prior to being surveyed. Source: Monitoring the Future http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/.
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