Cocaine Addiction can be beaten
August 27th, 2008Cocaine has been the drug of preference for the well-to-do and the artistic elite. It is a highly poisonous chemical that can bring about cardiac attack and loss of life, even when taken in little dosages.
It also regularly results in users to undergo psychotic episodes.
Cocaine is a strongly addictive drug that is ’snorted’ (ie. sniffed), injected, or smoked. Crack is cocaine that has been processed from cocaine hydrochloride to a free base for smoking. Its street names include coke, snow, flake, blow, and many variations.
Cocaine is a stimulant. The powdered, hydrochloride salt form of cocaine can be sniffed through the nose 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 steam smoked. The term “crack” refers to the cracking sound that is heard when it is heated.
Regardless of how cocaine is used or how often, a user can experience grave heart or cerebrovascular crises, such as a heart spasm or stroke, which could result in sudden death.
Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or attack followed by respiratory arrest. Cocaine is a solid central nervous system stimulant that interferes with the re-absorption process of dopamine - a biochemical messenger linked with gratification and movement. The accumulation of dopamine causes unremitting stimulation of reception neurons, which is associated with the euphoria commonly reported by cocaine abusers.
Physical consequences of cocaine use include constricted blood vessels, widened pupils, and increased temperature, heart rate, and blood hypertension. For more information on cocaine addiction visit us at http://www.addictiontodrugs.org.
