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Frequently Asked Questions about cocaine, crack and addiction
Street terms for cocaine: blow, nose candy, snowball, tornado, wicky stick1
What are the different forms of cocaine?
- White crystalline powder
- "Crack" or "rock" cocaine is an off-white chunky material.
How is cocaine used?
- Powder cocaine is generally snorted or dissolved in water and injected.
- Crack cocaine is usually smoked.
Who uses cocaine?
Cocaine is the second most commonly used illicit drug in the United States.
About 10 percent of Americans over the age of 12 have tried cocaine at least once in their lifetime, about 2 percent have tried crack, and nearly one percent is currently using cocaine.
How does cocaine get to the United States?
The United States-Mexico border is the primary point of entry for cocaine shipments being smuggled into the United States.
Organized crime groups based in Colombia control the worldwide supply of cocaine.
How much does cocaine cost?
Cocaine prices depend upon the purity of the product.
In 2001, cocaine purity declined by 8 percent, from 86 percent pure in 1998 to a 78 percent pure in 2001. The decrease in purity indicates a decrease in the supply of cocaine in the United States.
Cocaine remained low and stable, which suggests a steady supply to the United States.
Nationwide, prices ranged from $12,000 to $35,000 per kilogram.
What are some consequences of cocaine use?
Cocaine is powerfully addictive.
Smoking crack can cause severe chest pains with lung trauma and bleeding.
The mixing of cocaine and alcohol create coca ethylene while increasing risk of sudden death.
Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest.
How long does cocaine stay in the body?
Some people who are interested in the answer to this question are concerned about passing a drug test. And this is a very difficult question to answer accurately. Cocaine, because it is water-soluble, travels through the body rather quickly. The general rule of thumb is 1 to 7 days, depending upon the size and metabolism of the person. It can also be affected by how much cocaine was ingested over what time period.
As far as passing a drug test is concerned, there is no guaranteed right amount of time either. It would depend largely upon the above-mentioned variable and the type and sophistication of the test. Cocaine could be detected in the hair follicles, for example, for as long as the hair had been growing.
- Office of National Drug Control Policy, Street Terms: Drugs and the Drug Trade.
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, Infofax: Crack and Cocaine, October 2001.
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Summary of Findings from the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, September 2001.
- Drug Enforcement Administration, Drug Trafficking in the United States, September 2001.
- Drug Enforcement Administration, STRIDE Report, August 2002.
- Office of National Drug Control Policy, Pulse Check: Trends in Drug Abuse, November 2001.
- Office of National Drug Control Policy, Drug Facts: Cocaine, May 2002.
- Drug Enforcement Administration, Drug Descriptions: Cocaine.
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, Infofax: Crack and Cocaine, October 2001.
- Office of National Drug Control Policy, Drug Facts: Cocaine, May 2002.
Reprinted from DEA gov’t website
