Cocaine and Crack Information
Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant
drug. The powdered, hydrochloride salt form of cocaine can be snorted or
dissolved in water and injected. Crack is cocaine that has not been neutralized
by an acid to make the hydrochloride salt. This form of cocaine comes in a rock
crystal that can be heated and its vapors smoked. The term "crack" refers to
the crackling sound heard when it is heated. There were 2.0 million current
cocaine users and nearly 25 percent of those used
crack-cocaine.
Physical effects of cocaine use include constricted blood
vessels, dilated pupils, and increased temperature, heart rate, and blood
pressure. The faster the absorption, the shorter the duration of action. The
high from snorting may last 15 to 30 minutes, while that from smoking may last
5 to 10 minutes. Increased use can reduce the period of time a user feels high
and increases the risk of addiction.
Some users of cocaine report
feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. A tolerance to the "high"
may develop—many addicts report that they seek but fail to achieve as much
pleasure as they did from their first exposure. Some users will increase their
doses to intensify and prolong the effects.
Use of cocaine in a binge,
during which the drug is taken repeatedly and at increasingly high doses, may
lead to a state of increasing irritability, restlessness, and paranoia. This
can result in a period of full-blown paranoid psychosis, in which the user
loses touch with reality and experiences auditory hallucinations.
Other
complications associated with cocaine use include disturbances in hearth rhythm
and heart attacks, chest pain and respiratory failure, strokes, seizures and
headaches, and gastrointestinal complications such as abdominal pain and
nausea. Because cocaine has a tendency to decrease appetite, many chronic users
can become malnourished.
Different means of taking cocaine can produce
different adverse effects. Regularly snorting cocaine, for example, can lead to
loss of sense of smell, nosebleeds, problems with swallowing, hoarseness, and a
chronically runny nose. Ingesting cocaine can cause severe bowel gangrene due
to reduced blood flow. People who inject cocaine can experience severe allergic
reactions and, as with any injecting drug user, are at increased risk for
contracting HIV and other blood-borne diseases.
When people mix cocaine
and alcohol consumption, they are compounding the danger each drug poses and
unknowingly forming a complex chemical experiment within their bodies.
NIDA-funded researchers have found that the human liver combines cocaine and
alcohol and manufactures a third substance, cocaethylene, that intensifies
cocaine's effects, while potentially increasing the risk of sudden death.
© 2009 Drug-Free Alliance