Cocaine Addiction

When someone has been using cocaine, there are going to be many different side effects. Cocaine interferes with the transmitters in the brain that regulate dopamine, and when this happens, a high occurs.

The high that a person gets from using is very alluring cocaine, because it has been described as the best feeling that people have ever felt while using a drug, or ever. Because the high is so intense, users will often do anything they can to feel that way again.

The cocaine, however, also causes the brain to prohibit the good feelings that will occur naturally, and so therefore cocaine users will enter a cycle in which the cocaine causes them to feel a high, and the absence of cocaine causes them to feel very low, and therefore need to fight in order to find something which will feel as good. Most often they turn back to cocaine, and the cycle begins again. Unless the addict seeks help, and gets drug addiction treatment.

More Articles on Recovering From Cocaine Abuse

Cocaine FAQ

What is Crack Cocaine?

The Dangers of Crack Cocaine

Physical Effects and Issues of Cocaine Use

Cocaine FAQ

Cocaine is the world's strongest natural stimulant. 

It derives from the leaves of the coca plant native to the Eastern slopes of the Andes, and is cultivated in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.  Cocaine was first extracted from the leaves in 1855, and first isolated as the active ingredient of the coca plant in 1859.  For a hundred years since these discoveries, cocaine was used in a variety of products ranging from coca cola to wine, and even today continues to have limited use in the medical field as an eye, nose and mouth anesthetic.  With the Controlled Substance Act of 1970 cocaine has been classified as a level II substance, and is illegal drug except for medical purposes.

Crack is cocaine in it's base form, which allows the substance to burn more efficiently and to produce more smoke.  Crack is made by dissolving powdered cocaine in water and ammonia, or with baking soda, and then boiling it until solid; removing the hydrochloride.  It is then dried and broken into chunks that appear like yellowish white rock crystals that weigh from a tenth to a half of a gram. 

Crack first became available in the late seventies to early eighties, as the popular form of free base.  Unlike the purer form of base cocaine, crack is easily made using a process that is less dangerous than free base as it does not require the use of ether, which is highly flammable and unpredictable.  It is also inexpensive and can be sold in small amounts creating a whole new demographic for the drug.  It continues to be quite popular because of the rapidity of its effects. 

Smoking crack hits the brain via the lungs and the blood almost instantly, and the "high" as a result of this is described as being much more powerful than that of snorting the substance.  While the rush from crack can be intense, it only lasts about five to ten minutes and is followed by a "crash", which produces a strong desire to repeat the experience, and increases the risk of compulsive seeking behavior development.  Users of both cocaine and crack shortly develop tolerances to the drugs, but crack is believed to be the more addictive because of the quickness of the high, and the almost immediate crash and withdrawal.  Withdrawal symptoms include extreme fatigue, depression, irritability, anxiety, and possible psychosis. 

There are many dangers involved in smoking crack.  Some long and short term effects include acute respiratory problems, coughing, shortness of breath, lung trauma and bleeding, sleeplessness, nausea, headaches, and increased chance of sexually transmitted diseases.  Symptoms of chronic abuse could include severe cardiovascular problems such as heart failure, neurological factors like strokes or brain hemorrhaging, and psychiatric issues such as psychosis.  Another danger of crack abuse is the common habit of mixing the drug with alcohol.  Combining the two substances creates a chemical called cocaethylene in the liver, and not only intensifies the effects but doubles the risk of use. 

Crack Cocaine Addiction

Crack cocaine is made from regular cocaine in a process that is called freebasing. In this process, cocaine powder is cooked with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate, which is baking soda. From this, chips, rocks, or chunks are created. These can then be smoked. It is called crack because of the crackling sound that is heard when someone smokes this mixture. Crack abuse is something that is very harmful to your body. Because the drug is smoked instead of ingested or injected, the effects are felt much more quickly than usual. On the other hand, these effects are much more short-lived than the effects of other types of cocaine.

Crack is used in the same way as regular cocaine. It is put into a glass pipe or sometimes a smoking pipe, and there is a screen that is placed underneath it. Then, it is heated and the vapors are inhaled. They are absorbed through someone’s blood and into their brain in less than 15 seconds. It only takes one hit to produce intoxication.

Crack abuse occurs when someone uses this drug. Because of the effects on the brain, a high is produced which has been described as one of the best feelings a person has ever felt. This high is quickly replaced by a low, which is much lower than any other feelings. This causes someone to want to get to more crack as soon as they can, which begins the cycle of addiction. A person might even become unable to feel good or happy on their own, without the use of crack.

Some negative effects of crack abuse include anxiety, depression, irritability, and also a feeling of not needing to sleep, which leads to extreme feelings of fatigue. Also, there is a general deterioration of health, and users develop an intense craving for crack, which cancels out every other thing in their lives. Many times, users are found to engage in behavior that is compulsive and repetitive in patterns. There might also be hallucinations that occur, both aural and physically seen. A person might feel as though there are things crawling under their skin, and they might become so paranoid that they want to hurt themselves because of it. Withdrawal symptoms can lead someone addicted to cocaine to feel out of control with or without the drug, cocaine drug rehab and withdrawal centers are safe places for someone to detox from cocaine addiction.

Severe depression is what also might follow. Crack abuse results in delirious behavior, and can also lead to paranoid psychosis. In this condition, crack abuse might lead to someone actually losing touch with the reality of the world, and withdrawing into their own mind.

Crack abuse might also mean that someone is no longer able to feel pleasure without using crack cocaine. When this happens, a person is completely relying on crack in order to feel good. They will become obsessed with finding more crack, and will have no idea of free will. They will become compulsive, and will often go on binges where all they are doing is finding the illegal drugs and consuming it. Many times these binges lead to the crack user’s death, either from overdoses, or behavior that they engage in during their crack abuse.

Many times, crack abuse leads to lying, cheating, stealing, and committing violent crimes in order to get more crack. The family members and fiends of the person who is abusing crack are going to feel that they no longer know their family member or their friend, and the relationships that the user once had are going to be destroyed. Crack abuse is going to disrupt everything in that person’s life, and might also be a cause of further alarm when it comes to the community as a whole.