Cocaine
Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug. The powdered form of cocaine is either snorted or injected.
Powdered cocaine (cocaine hydrochloride) is extracted from the leaves of the coca plant, which is native to South America. In the late 19th century cocaine was used as an anesthetic, but the availability of safer drugs rendered many of its medical applications obsolete. Today powdered cocaine is abused for the intense euphoric effects it produces.
Street Terms
Coke, snow, flake, blow, nose candy, snowball, tornado, wicky stick, Perico, Yayo
Cocaine (typically) is snorted (inhaled through the nose), although it may be dissolved in water and injected. When snorted, the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal membranes. The drug reaches the brain--and produces its euphoric effect--within 3 to 5 minutes. When injected, the drug is released directly into the bloodstream and reaches the brain within 15 to 30 seconds.
Individuals of all ages use cocaine--data reported in the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse indicate that an estimated 27,788,000 U.S. residents aged 12 and older used a form of cocaine at least once in their lifetime.
Cocaine use among high school students is a particular concern. Seven percent of high school seniors in the United States used the drug at least once in their lifetime, and 2 percent used the drug in the past month, according to the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Survey.
Cocaine is a very addictive drug. Chronic users risk developing tolerance to cocaine's effects. Many addicts report that as tolerance develops they fail to achieve the positive effects they experienced when they first began using the drug; thus, they begin to use cocaine with greater frequency and in larger doses.
Cocaine users who inject the drug expose themselves to additional risks, including contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B and C, and other blood-borne viruses.
Cocaine is a Schedule II substance under the Controlled Substances Act. Schedule II drugs, which include PCP and methamphetamine, have a high potential for abuse. Abuse of these drugs may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.
Risks
- Increased body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure
- Headaches
- Abdominal pain and nausea
- Decreased appetite, resulting in malnutrition
- Irritability, restlessness and anxiety
- Paranoid psychosis (loss of touch with reality and auditory hallucinations)
- Addiction/dependence
- Loss of smell, nosebleeds, and a chronically runny nose (from snorting)
- Severe bowel gangrene=intestine tissue dies (from swallowing)
- Increased risk of HIV and other diseases
- Respiratory arrest (stopped breathing)
- Heart attack or stroke which may cause sudden death
- Cocaine and alcohol combined dramatically increases the risk of sudden death
