Cocaine Abuse and Addiction

Cocaine abuse and addiction affects everyone of all ages, genders and socio-cultural backgrounds. 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.

Regardless of how cocaine is used or how frequently, a user can experience acute cardiovascular or cerebrovascular emergencies, such as a heart attack or stroke, which could result in sudden death. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizure followed by respiratory arrest.

Physical effects of cocaine use include constricted blood vessels, dilated pupils, and increased temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. The duration of cocaine's immediate euphoric effects, which include hyperstimulation, reduced fatigue, and mental alertness, depends on the route of administration. The faster the absorption, the more intense the high. On the other hand, 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 euphoric effects. While tolerance to the high can occur, users can also become more sensitive 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. 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 heart 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 the 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 all injecting drug users, 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, which intensifies cocaine's euphoric effects, while potentially increasing the risk of sudden death

Despite the harmful consequences of cocaine use, some people who take it or other drugs are unable to stop. Drugs change the way the brain works. Some of these changes are short term, while other changes can last a very long time.In some people, drug use can change the brain and its neurotransmitters so profoundly that addiction results. Addiction is characterized by the following:

• A strong compulsion or drive to use drugs despite negative consequences. In other words, a person persists in using drugs even if he or she is having serious problems.
  
  
• Tolerance: Loss of control over the amount of the drug used, the person needs more of the drug to produce the same effect as before.
  
  
• Withdrawal: Intense craving for the drug when it is not available. The craving results from changes to the brain. Once a person is addicted, he or she must have the drug just to keep from feeling bad. This is because drugs can cause changes in the normal functioning of neurotransmitters in the brain.

Addiction is considered a disease because the drugs have changed the way the brain functions. Different drugs cause different changes in the brain, some more severe than others. Research in animals and humans suggests that some drugs may cause changes that last long after the individual has stopped taking drugs or even permanently.

How Quickly Can I Become Addicted to Cocaine?

Cocaine as well as all drugs are potentially harmful and may have life-threatening consequences associated with their use. If and how quickly you might become addicted depends on many factors including your genes (which you inherit from your parents) and your body’s composition. There are also vast differences among individuals in sensitivity to various drugs. While one person may use cocaine or another drug one or many times and suffer no ill effects, another person may be particularly vulnerable and overdose with first use. There is no way of knowing in advance how someone may react.

If you, your friend, or loved one is addicted to cocaine, please call at 877.762.3765

Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) InfoFacts: Crack and Cocaine