Understanding Cocaine: A Quick Introduction

What is cocaine?

Cocaine is a recreational drug that is taken from the coca plant. It is considered to be an euphoric stimulant that can cause intense pleasure in the user after taking it. Cocaine is generally snorted by users because, although it is a smokable substance, it is very inefficient. There is a smokable way to consume freebase cocaine, which is crack cocaine. The last one causes a more lasting and more euphoric feeling than the first one. When an user takes the drug he or she will start to feel the effects within a minute. When an user has smoked the drug or taken it intravenously the effects will happen within seconds.

What are the effects of cocaine?

The effects of this drug are as varied as the people who take them. Basically, each person will have a different reaction depending on their tolerance, body weight, dose and even genetic mark-up. However, there are certain things that will affect the user to some degree. Users of the drug may feel more talkative, more active and feel like they have more drive. The user may also experience irritability, anxiety and other unpleasant effects right after taking the drugs. The 'high' from this drug usually lasts up to half a hour. Some users experience paranoia and hallucinations. In rare and extreme cases, users may experience psychotic breaks. However, this usually happens because the user has mixed the drug with other substances like alcohol.

Cocaine also has a lot of other long term effects. In the long term, taking this drug can cause irregular heart beats that turn into heart attacks, strokes, tremors, chest pains, respiratory problems and seizures and headache along with headaches and dizziness. Depending on how the user takes the drug, it may cause different problems. For instance, an user that smokes cocaine may have a problem with smelling, swallowing and regular nosebleeds. An user that injects it intravenously has the risk of infection and the risk of all sorts of diseases that are passed on with needle use, like HIV and hepatitis.

Abusing cocaine may constrain blood vessels and change the user's brain chemistry so that it will no longer produce dopamine when it needs to. This makes it one of the most psychologically addictive drugs, since the feeling of euphoria is so big and difficult to recreate without it. Additionally, cocaine withdrawal is a difficult process in which many redose due to how unpleasant it is.

What Are The Dangers of Cocaine?

Due to the fact that it is a Schedule 2 drug that only doctors can currently use as anesthesia in small parts of the body, getting cocaine is difficult to do. Users will not know what is in the cocaine they buy and much of it turns out to be contaminated. About a third of cocaine on the street in 2009 had a dewormer into it. Taken with cocaine, the body was unable to metabolize it, which ended in several user's deaths. The first step to recover is to reach out to a mental health professional with experience in addiction.