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Crack & Cocaine Information
What is crack?
The chemical cocaine hydrochloride is commonly known as cocaine. Some users
chemically process cocaine in order to remove the hydrochloride. This process
is called "freebasing" and makes the drug more potent. "Crack" is a solid form
of freebased cocaine. It is called "crack" because it snaps and cracks when
heated and smoked.
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What's new about
crack?
Since crack is an already prepared form of freebased
cocaine, the user does not have to buy the equipment or be exposed to the
explosive chemicals associated with freebasing. Crack is most often packaged in
vials or plastic bags and sold in small quantities, usually 300-500mg or enough
for two to three inhalations.
Traditionally, cocaine was a rich man's
drug, due to the large expense of a cocaine habit. Now, crack is being sold at
prices low enough that even adolescents can afford to buy it. But, this is
misleading, since once a person is addicted to cocaine, his "habit" often
increases, and so does his expense.
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What are crack's adverse
effects?
As with any street drug, what is sold may not be what
it is claimed to be. Predicting side effects is difficult when the actual
contents are not known. Life-threatening reactions have been reported whether
it's the first, the 100th, or any other time crack is used. You do not have to
overdose on crack to die from it.
In addition, if the initial
experience leads to continued use, other adverse effects include the rapid
development of tolerance, addiction, and all the social problems that can come
from an expensive drug habit.
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Regardless of dosage, these reactions may appear
- Convulsions
- increased heart rate
- Abnormal heartbeat
- Heart attack
- Sudden, sharp blood pressure increase
- Stroke
- Extreme depression
- Suicidal behavior
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How is crack used?
The same way
that freebase is used, namely, by placing the substance in a glass pipe (or
hash pipe) with a fine mesh screen under it, then heating it and inhaling the
vapors. The vapors of the freebase are absorbed through the lungs into the
bloodstream and transported to the brain within 10-15 seconds. One inhalation
will produce a degree of intoxication usually lasting 10-15 minutes.
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What Crack Does to Your Lungs
One of the first areas damaged by smoking crack is the lining of the lungs. Your lungs are not just a set of bags inside you that collect air. They are a vital part of a life-support system that supplies your whole body with oxygen and eliminates waste products like carbon dioxide.
When you inhale, you pull air through your nose and mouth and into the windpipe (also called the trachea). On the way to the lungs, the air you breathe is warmed, moistened, and cleansed before reaching the bronchi (branches of the trachea). About halfway down the chest, these branches split and take air into the right and left lungs. The bronchi are lined with special hair-like cells called cilia, which act like tiny fans, constantly waving to help remove dirt from the air. Smoking tobacco or marijuana or inhaling other drugs prevents the cilia from cleaning the air that reaches your lungs.
The two main bronchi divide and redivide into smaller air passages that end in millions of tiny air sacs called alveoli. Each lung is about the size o half a football and can hold at most three of four quarts of air (normal, quiet breathing takes in about a pint of air). Because of the alveoli, however, there is so much tissue inside the lungs that if this organ were flattened and spread out, its surface would cover nearly 100 square yards. That˘s an area larger than a football field!
Each of the alveoli is wrapped in tiny blood vessels that absorb oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide. Oxygen from the air is removed and passed into the bloodstream by red blood cells. At the same time, carbon dioxide is transported through the bloodstream into the lungs, where it is eliminated when you exhale (breathe out).
When crack is inhaled, it passes from the lungs into the blood by way of the alveoli. The drug then goes directly to the brain. Inhaling crack irritates the lining of the lungs, which increases the heart rate. It also causes painful swelling of the lung tissue.
Source: Crack and Cocaine by Linda Bayer, Ph.D.
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Effects of Cocaine
The affects of cocaine are ongoing and many times deadly to the user and those around him/her during their high.
Cocaine strongly stimulates the nerves and causes it to give misinformation to the brain. It causes one to exaggerate reality to or to hallucinate completely. For example, the sense of touch and smell are intensified. The message (though faulty) is sent to the person's brain. When the message is received, the brain responds by signaling the body how to react.
Because the addiction is physiological and mental, the body is tricked into thinking the substance is needed to survive. This causes the addict to go to great lengths in order to obtain another 'hit' of cocaine. It makes them completely irrational. It has been documented many times on the media and in the newspaper that addicts will go so far as to kill someone if that person is standing between them and obtaining another high from cocaine. It also allows the supplier to have almost one hundred percent control over the addict.
When a pusher begins a person on cocaine, his goal is to control them in addition to obtain ill gotten financial gain. They are very rarely a user because then they would loose control and be as bound as their addicts that they are supplying.
Many cocaine addicts try to achieve the same pleasure they experienced the first time they tried cocaine, but they never manage to have the same feeling again. Some some of them may even increase their dose. Instead of the so much desired euphoria, they in fact, are killing themselves with every use.
Abusing cocaine is dangerous and has many negative effects on the human body; constriction of blood flow in the veins and arteries, abnormal dilation of the pupils, increase in the body’s temperature, the user's heart rate, and sometimes even increased blood pressure. It can also cause chronic headaches, abdominal pain from poor bowel movements, and vomiting. Cocaine also decreases appetite; this simple fact puts most chronic users in danger of becoming malnourished.
There are various methods of taking cocaine; each of them can result in different negative effects. Snorting cocaine can result in loosing the sense of smell, cause nosebleeds, swollen esophagus; causing discomfort when swallowing, a development of a hoarse voice, and a non-stop runny nose. Inhaling the vapor of a rock crystallized form that been heated can cause constipation of the bowels. This causes toxin to build up in the body and attach healthy organs. Injecting the liquid form of cocaine with a needle can result in severe allergic reactions. Since addicts are not particular about sharing their needle with others, often times transmittal diseases are passed from one user to the other. The most prominent is HIV and AIDS.
Regardless of which avenue a user chooses to administer this substance, the affects of cocaine are adverse and not at all worth the momentary high. Consistent users tend to experience acute cardiovascular problems such as a heart attack or stroke which may cause sudden death. In short, considering all the risk involved with willfully taking cocaine … it's just not worth it.
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Information on this page courtesy
of National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Please fill out this
information form as completely as possible so
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