The Cocaine Drug as an Addictive Stimulant - Easy to Start, Difficult to Quit

Added: 12/23/2005

The cocaine drug is a powerfully addictive stimulant that affects the brain and causes energized effects. It was first used in the 1880s as a local anesthetic for some surgeries and was called the drug for 100 years because of its popularity. Cocaine affects the central nervous system interfering with the processes associated with feelings of pleasure. It provokes continuous stimulation of getting neurons and as a result cocaine users report they feel euphoria.

There are several ways of using cocaine drug. This substance can be snorted, injected or smoked. Snorting means inhaling cocaine powder through the nose when it's absorbed into the bloodstream through nasal tissues. When injected, the abuser injects the drug directly into the bloodstream. When smoking, cocaine smoke is inhaled into the lungs and in this case the drug absorption to the bloodstream is as rapid as while injection.

There exist two chemical forms of cocaine drug. The inhaled substance of cocaine was given a street name crack. This form is obtained through processing the powdered cocaine hydrochloride form. The effect of smoking crack is felt in less than 10 seconds. Such rapid high has become one of the reasons of great crack popularity in the 1980s. Another reason is that it's not expensive to buy and produce crack.

Cocaine use varies from constant use to occasional use. But anyway there are no safe ways of using this drug. Any method leads to absorption of toxic amounts of cocaine drug that can result in sudden death. Repeated use causes addiction and other health consequences.

Effects after using cocaine appear almost at once and disappear in several minutes or hours. The duration of its effects depends on the method of usage. The faster the absorption, the shorter the duration of the high. On the other hand, with fast absorption the user will experience the high of less intensity. It means that the high from snorting lasts 15-30 minutes and the high from smoking lasts only 5-10 minutes. Short-term effects of cocaine use include energized feelings of euphoria, alert sensations of sight, sound and touch. Physiological effects increase temperature, heart rate and blood pressure, constrict blood vessels.

Taking large amounts of cocaine drug causes tremors, paranoia, violent behavior and feelings of irritability and anxiety. In some cases sudden death can be a result of the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly after it. Cocaine smokers often suffer from chest pains, shortness of breath and coughing. Those who inject cocaine can transmit and get diseases of injection equipment used such as HIV. They also can experience allergic reactions that cause death in many cases. Snorting can lead to loss of sense of smell, chronically runny nose, nosebleeds and hoarseness.

There can be severe medical complications connected with cocaine use. The most widespread are cardiovascular effects (disturbance in heart rhythm and heart attacks), respiratory consequences, strokes, headaches and seizures, intestinal effects such as abdominal pain and nausea.

The most dangerous combination is simultaneous use of alcohol and cocaine. It produces a chemical that prolongs the duration of a high intensifying euphoria as its rather stable and strongly affects the brain. But such combination causes severe health problems and there are many death cases reported after combined use of cocaine and alcohol.

The widespread abuse of cocaine has stimulated efforts to develop treatment programs. But as it is known there is still no effective program that can give 100% results.

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