What is cocaine?
There are two varieties of cocaine: the
hydrochloride salt and the "freebase." The hydrochloride
salt, or powdered form of cocaine, dissolves in water and,
when abused, can be used intravenously (by vein) or
intranasally (in the nose). Freebase refers to a compound
that has not been neutralized by an acid to make the
hydrochloride salt. The freebase form of cocaine is smokable.
Cocaine is usually sold on the street as a fine, white,
crystalline powder, recognized as "coke," "C," "snow,"
"flake," or "blow." Street dealers typically dilute it with
such inert substances as cornstarch, talcum powder, and/or
sugar, or with such active drugs as procaine (a
chemically-related local anesthetic) or with such other
stimulants as amphetamines.
What is crack cocaine?
Crack is the street identity given to the
freebase form of cocaine that has been developed from the
powdered cocaine hydrochloride form to a smokable substance.
Crack cocaine is processed with ammonia or sodium
bicarbonate (baking soda) and water, and heated to remove
the hydrochloride.
Since crack is smoked, the user feels the high in less than
10 seconds. This immediate and euphoric effect is one of the
reasons that crack became enormously trendy in the mid
1980s. An additional reason is that crack is inexpensive
both to create and to buy.
What are the methods of cocaine use?
The principal routes of cocaine use are
oral, intranasal, intravenous, and inhalation. The slang
terms for these routes are, respectively, "chewing,"
"snorting," "mainlining," "injecting," and "smoking"
(including freebase and crack cocaine). Snorting is the
process of inhaling cocaine powder through the nostrils,
where it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal
tissues. Injecting releases the drug directly into the
bloodstream, and heightens the intensity of its effects.
Smoking involves the inhalation of cocaine vapor or smoke
into the lungs, where absorption into the bloodstream is as
rapid as by injection.
There is no safe method of cocaine use. Any route of
administration can lead to absorption of toxic amounts of
cocaine, leading to acute cardiovascular or cerebrovascular
emergencies that could result in sudden death. Repeated
cocaine use by any route of administration can produce
addiction and other adverse health consequences.
What are the temporary effects of
cocaine use?
Cocaine's effects appear almost
immediately after a single dose, and disappear within a few
minutes or hours. Taken in small amounts (up to 100 mg),
cocaine usually makes the user feel euphoric, energetic,
talkative, and mentally alert, especially to the sensations
of sight, sound, and touch. It can also temporarily decrease
the need for food and sleep. Some users find that the drug
helps them to perform simple physical and intellectual tasks
more quickly, while others can experience the opposite
effect.
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.
Cocaine Rehab Treatment
What are the lasting effects of
cocaine use?
Cocaine is a powerfully addictive drug.
Once having tried cocaine, an individual may have difficulty
predicting or controlling the extent to which he or she will
continue to use. Cocaine's stimulant and addictive effects
are thought to be primarily a result of its ability to
inhibit the re-absorption of dopamine by nerve cells.
Dopamine is released as part of the brain's reward system,
and is either directly or indirectly involved in the
addictive properties of every major drug of abuse.
A substantial tolerance to cocaine's high
may develop, with many addicts reporting that they seek but
fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their
first experience. Some users will frequently increase their
doses to intensify and prolong the euphoric effects. While
tolerance to the high can occur, users can also become more
sensitive (sensitization) to cocaine's anesthetic and
convulsant effects, without increasing the dose taken. This
increased sensitivity may explain some deaths occurring
after apparently low doses of cocaine.
What are the medical complications of cocaine use?
There are vast medical complications
linked to cocaine use. Some of the most frequent
complications are cardiovascular effects, including
disturbances in heart rhythm and heart attacks; such
respiratory effects as chest pain and respiratory failure;
neurological effects, including strokes, seizure, 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 and coma.
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, individuals 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.
Research has revealed a potentially dangerous interaction
between cocaine and alcohol. Taken in combination, the two
drugs are converted by the body to cocaethylene.
Cocaethylene has a longer duration of action in the brain
and is more toxic than either drug alone. While more
research needs to be done, it is noteworthy that the mixture
of cocaine and alcohol is the most common two-drug
combination that results in drug-related death.
Are cocaine users at danger of
contracting HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B and C?
Yes. cocaine users, particularly those
who inject, are at increased risk for contracting such
infectious diseases as human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV/AIDS) and hepatitis. In fact, use and abuse of illicit
drugs, including crack cocaine, have become the leading risk
factors for new cases of HIV. Drug abuse-related spread of
HIV can result from direct transmission of the virus through
the sharing of contaminated needles and paraphernalia
between injecting drug users. Research has also shown that
drug use can interfere with judgment about risk-taking
behavior, and can potentially lead to reduced precautions
about having sex, the sharing of needles and injection
paraphernalia, and the trading of sex for drugs, by both men
and women.
Furthermore, hepatitis C is spreading rapidly among
injection drug users; current estimates indicate infection
rates of 65 to 90 percent in this population. At present,
there is no vaccine for the hepatitis C virus, and the only
treatment is expensive, often unsuccessful, and may have
serious side effects.
What is the effect of maternal cocaine
use?
The full extent of the effects of
prenatal drug exposure on a child is not completely known,
but many scientific studies have documented that babies born
to mothers who abuse cocaine during pregnancy are often
prematurely delivered, have low birth weights and smaller
head circumferences, and are often shorter in length.
What treatments are successful for
cocaine users?
There has been an enormous increase in
the number of individuals seeking treatment for cocaine
addiction during the 1980s and 1990s. The majority of people
seeking treatment smoke crack, and are likely to be users of
more than one substance. The widespread abuse of cocaine has
stimulated extensive efforts to develop treatment programs
for this type of drug abuse. Cocaine addiction and use is a
complex problem involving biological changes in the brain,
as well as, a multitude of social, family, and environmental
factors. As a result, treatment of cocaine addiction is
complex, and must address a variety of problems.
Behavioral Interventions
Many behavioral treatments have been found to be
effective for cocaine addiction, including both residential
and outpatient approaches. Indeed, behavioral therapies are
often the only available, effective treatment approaches to
many drug problems, including cocaine addiction, for which
there is, as yet, no practical medication.
Therapeutic communities, or residential programs with
planned lengths of stay of 6 to 12 months, offer another
alternative to those in need of treatment for cocaine
addiction. Therapeutic communities are often comprehensive,
in that they focus on the resocialization of the individual
to society, and can include on-site vocational
rehabilitation and other supportive services.
Pharmacological Approaches
There are no medications presently available to treat
cocaine addiction specifically. Because of mood changes
experienced during the early stages of cocaine abstinence,
antidepressant drugs have been shown to be of some help. In
addition to the problems of treating addiction, cocaine
overdose results in many deaths yearly, and medical
treatments are being developed to deal with the acute
emergencies resulting from too much cocaine use.
Cocaine Rehab Treatment
If you or someone you know would like to
talk with one of our trained staff to discuss treatment
options for Cocaine Rehab treatment please contact us 24
hours a day, 7 days a week at our t oll free number:
1-866-874-9774. You will receive a free consultation. |
