It was both a stimulant and suppressant providing the euphoric sensation of happiness and energy. However, chewing the leaves produces no “high.” Cocaine was first extracted from the coca plant in the 1880s and deemed a miracle drug. Coca plant leaves are a crystalline tropane alkaloid, combined with the alkaloid suffix “-ine”- make up one of the most powerful drugs of our time: cocaine. The alkaloid was first scientifically isolated from the coca plant in 1860 by Albert Neiman when it received its name, cocaine.

Cocaine’s Early Usages

In Europe, however, its medical usefulness was not fully recognized until Carl Koller used it to anesthetize the cornea of the eye. Over the next 20 years it became a popular medicine and tonic in Europe and America curing a wide variety of diseases and illnesses. It was believed to help heal ailments such as asthma, ulcers, malaria and indigestion, as well as an aphrodisiac and improve longevity. In some places it was becoming more and more available in the form of powder and was recommended to recovering alcoholics, mixed into drinks like Coca-Cola and wine, also and found inside cigarettes. It was coined the “miracle drug,” as characters like Sherlock Holmes glorified its use. In 1903, however, Coca-Cola stopped using coca leaves in their product as they discovered the adverse reactions on the brain.

Cocaine Becomes Illegal

However, reports soon started to appear that claimed cocaine was a drug with a high social abuse potential and in America it seemed to strengthen growing crime figures. As a result, cocaine was classified as a narcotic and its use was restricted to specific surgical procedures and medicinal preparations. After users and physicians began to realize its dangers, various regulations were enacted, its use decreased, and by the 1920s the epidemic had subsided. It was actually in 1914 that cocaine came under control in the United States through the Harrison Narcotic Act which regulated the distribution of coca, and specifically addressing cocaine, even though cocaine is not a narcotic. In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act officially made cocaine illegal in the United States.

During this time, coca was being commercially grown world-wide in places such as Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan, but even to this day coca grown for cocaine is mostly produced from underground labs in South American countries where it has become a major source of income since the 1980s.

Cocaine Use in America

Another epidemic began in the United States in the 1970s and peaked in the mid-1980s; again the drug was at first considered harmless. With the latter epidemic and its accompanying crack epidemic, violence in crack-infested neighborhoods increased dramatically. Young people with few other opportunities were lured by the power and money of being crack dealers; most carried guns and many were murdered in the drug-gang wars that ensued. By the late 1990s the cocaine and crack epidemic had subsided as heroin regained popularity among illicit drug users.

Today, cocaine and its derivatives are still popular local anesthetics in operations of the ear, nose and throat and it is also used in a preparation given to alleviate the pain (physical and mental) of terminal diseases. Although cocaine has a high public profile as a drug of addictive potential, this drug has also had a long and distinguished history as a medicine and local anesthetic. The legitimate uses of cocaine exacerbate the problems of controlling this substance of abuse and should provide a stimulus for generating local anesthetics that lack addictive potential.

If you or someone you know needs help with a cocaine addiction, we are here to help. Please call our toll free number at (866) 872-6495. We are here to answer your questions on cocaine treatment and recovery.

Cocaine’s Effects on the Body

The reality of this highly addictive stimulant hits after the high. As cocaine travels through the blood, it affects the whole body. Cocaine harms the brain, heart, blood vessels, and lungs — and can even cause sudden death. Cocaine is responsible for more U.S. emergency room visits than any other illegal drug.

The effects of addictive cocaine use travel all through the body. Here is what happens in the body:

• Cocaine is very bad for the heart. It increases heart rate and blood pressure while constricting the arteries supplying blood to the heart. The result can be a heart attack, even in young people without heart disease. Cocaine can also trigger a deadly abnormal heart rhythm called arrhythmia, killing instantly.
• The harmful effects of cocaine once it hits the brain include causing strokes due to constricting of blood vessels. Cocaine causes seizures and can lead to bizarre or violent behavior.
• Snorting cocaine can cause damages in the nose and sinuses, and regular use can cause nasal perforation.
• Smoking crack cocaine irritates the lungs and, in some people, causes permanent lung damage.
• Cocaine can also cause long term effects in the gastrointestinal tract.
• The results of oxygen starvation can cause ulcers, or even perforation of the stomach or intestines.
• Cocaine can cause sudden, overwhelming kidney failure through a process called rhabdomyolysis.
• In people with high-blood pressure, regular cocaine use can accelerate the long-term kidney damage caused by high blood pressure.

Dependence and Psychological Effects of Cocaine

There are also psychological effects of cocaine use. Cocaine acts in the deep areas of the brain and these are the ones that reward us for “good behavior.” Those activities lead to food, sex and healthy pleasure. And it can create a powerful craving to use more cocaine.

Repeated cocaine use leads to tolerance, dependence, and addiction. Many cocaine users fall prey to addiction and life threatening consequences. There is no “safe” frequency of use for cocaine. It’s impossible to predict whether a person will become physically or psychologically dependent on cocaine. When dependence is present, stopping cocaine suddenly leads to withdrawal. Symptoms of withdrawal from cocaine are more psychological than physiological.

Typically, cocaine withdrawal symptoms include:

• Depression and anxiety
• Fatigue
• Difficulty concentrating
• Inability to feel pleasure
• Increased craving for more cocaine

Physical symptoms can include aches, pains, tremors, and chills. Cocaine withdrawal is rarely medically serious. In certain people, withdrawal from cocaine may cause suicidal thoughts. Typically, withdrawal symptoms from cocaine addiction resolve within one to two weeks.

There are two distinct categories of cocaine effects: short-term effects and long-term effects. Even if a person has only used cocaine once, he/she can experience short-term cocaine effects. Long-term cocaine effects appear after increased periods of use and are dependent upon the duration of time and amount of cocaine that has been consumed. Some short-term cocaine effects first time users experience includes increased energy, decreased appetite, and increased heart rate and blood pressure. Dilated pupils, increased temperature and mental alertness are also signs to immediate cocaine use. People who try cocaine often get hooked to the short-term cocaine effects, namely feeling as though they have increased energy. The quick high keeps users feeling energetic and able to endure longer in physical activities. New cocaine users often try cocaine to increase productivity at work and in other areas of their lives so that they can work longer and harder. While these results may seem promising in the beginning, increased tolerance and dangerous life choices often follow repeated cocaine use. This leads to the more long term effects listed above.

If you or someone you know needs help with a cocaine addiction, we are here to help. Please call our toll free number. We are here to answer your questions on cocaine treatment and recovery.

Ways to take Cocaine

Cocaine is produced as a white chunky powder. Once this cocaine powder is produced, it can be ingested in four primary ways. These are:

• Snorting- absorbing cocaine through the mucous membranes of the nose. This can be snorted through a short straw or rolled up paper money.
• Injecting – users mix cocaine powder with water and use a syringe to inject the solution intravenously.
• Freebasing – Another potent form of smokable cocaine, where the hydrochloride is removed from the salt form of cocaine, thus liberating it as a free base that can be smoked.
• Crack Cocaine – Cocaine hydrochloride is mixed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and other ingredients, causing it to solidify into pellets or “rocks”. The crack is then smoked in glass pipes.

Forms of cocaine

The five basic forms of cocaine are: coca leaves, coca paste, powder cocaine, freebase cocaine, and crack cocaine.

• Coca leaves are usually chewed like chewing tobacco but can be rolled into cigarettes or cigars and smoked. Coca leaves can also be infused in liquid and consumed like tea. This form of ingestion takes about 30 minutes to enter the bloodstream.
• Coca paste is a chunky, off-white to light-brown, putty-like substance. It is usually an intermediate product in the processing of coca leaves into powder cocaine. It cannot be injected, snorted, or ingested, although it can be inhaled.
• Powder cocaine is a white, powdery substance made by reacting coca paste with hydrochloric acid. Powder cocaine is usually nasally snorted, but it is also easily injected or ingested, unlike base forms of cocaine, powder cocaine cannot be inhaled (smoked). Powder cocaine is injected by dissolving it into water and injected into a vein. When injected, cocaine reaches the brain in one minute.
• Cocaine base is produced from powder cocaine. Like coca paste, it is an intermediate between two steps of the cocaine making process and is not absorbed if injected, nasally snorted, or injected. Unlike coca paste it cannot be smoked. Freebase cocaine is derived from powder cocaine that has been dissolved in water and a strong alkaloid solution (i.e. ammonia). Freebase cocaine is inhaled in pipes and takes 19 seconds for the cocaine to reach the brain.

What is crack?

Cocaine is generally sold on the street as a fine, white, crystalline powder, known as “coke,” “C,” “snow,” “flake,” or “blow.” Street dealers generally dilute it with such inert substances as cornstarch, talcum powder, and/or sugar, or with such active drugs or with such other stimulants as amphetamines.

Crack is the street name given to a freebase form of cocaine that has been processed from the powdered cocaine hydrochloride form to a smokable substance. The term “crack” refers to the crackling sound heard when the mixture is smoked. Crack cocaine is processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water, and heated to remove the hydrochloride. Because crack is smoked, the user experiences a high in less than 10 seconds. This rather immediate and euphoric effect is one of the reasons that crack became enormously popular in the mid 1980s. Another reason is that crack is inexpensive both to produce and to buy.

Cocaine “crack” can be highly addictive no matter what form it is taken in. If you or someone you know needs help with a cocaine addiction, we are here to help. Please call the toll free number at the top of this page. We are here to answer your questions on cocaine treatment and recovery.