Ways to Take Cocaine

A person who is thinking about using cocaine should know about the effects, forms of cocaine, and the ways to take it. Cocaine is an illegal drug that affects the central nervous system. Cocaine is derived from the coca leaf and has been chewed in its original form by indigenous people of South America for thousands of years. It is the most potent stimulant of natural origin and one of the most powerfully addictive drugs. Even before cocaine was isolated in its sulfate form, the leaf’s effects were well known and documented. The indigenous people who chewed the coca leaf exhibited extra energy and awareness, yet modern documentation indicates that prolonged coca leaf chewing can have similar effects as cocaine in its purest form. Today, people from all backgrounds use cocaine.

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.