Crack cocaine is cocaine hydrochloride that has been processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate and water into freebase crack cocaine, chips, chunks, or crack rocks. Crack cocaine is a relatively new type of freebase crack cocaine made by heating cocaine hydrochloride with baking soda or ammonia in water. This result of this process removes the hydrochloride base so the cocaine can be smoked in crack cocaine form. Unlike regular freebase cocaine preparation, crack cocaine manufacturing does not use explosive solvents. The result is a hard paste that is cut into chunks of crack cocaine resembling rock salt. These ready-to-use portions of crack cocaine allow users to quickly repeat doses of crack. Cocaine. Two or three crack cocaine chunks or crack rocks, sufficient for several doses of the drug, typically sell for $5 to $20.
Crack cocaine that has been processed and reduced to crack rock form for smoking is a very pure form of crack cocaine unlike powder cocaine, which is snorted. The idea of smoking crack cocaine instead of injecting cocaine for a very intense high appeals to many people. This is why crack cocaine has becoming very popular across the country. Crack cocaine used to be considered a drug of the streets and has now become popular with people of all backgrounds and environments. The smoking of crack cocaine sends an almost instantaneous rush of pleasure directly to the brain. The intensity of this feeling is such that many people are addicted to crack cocaine from the first hit. Many crack cocaine smokers will do anything for the rush they get as they inhale the smoke from a crack cocaine pipe. The initial short-term pleasure of crack cocaine is quickly followed by an intense desire of the crack cocaine user to smoke more Crack Cocaine. This craving for more crack cocaine involves anxiety, depression, irritability, extreme fatigue and intense crack cocaine induced paranoia.
Frequent crack cocaine users develop strange patterns of behavior, not unlike persons suffering from mental illness. Visual and auditory crack cocaine induced hallucinations of insects crawling underneath the skin, also known as fornication may occur. Severe depressive conditions may follow; agitated delirium; and also a syndrome sometimes known as toxic paranoid psychosis. The use of crack cocaine cause increases in blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, and body temperature and crack cocaine users are at greater risk for heart attacks, strokes, respiratory failure, and brain seizures. Reports of sudden death while smoking crack cocaine are not uncommon.
Crack cocaine is one of the most "reinforcing" of all drugs. People who use crack cocaine experience a strong compulsion to continue taking additional doses. Crack cocaine is especially dangerous because of its high addiction potential. Because its vapors are inhaled and go to the brain within seconds, the user experiences an intense euphoria, while at the same time receiving a very high dose of the drug. Tolerance to the euphoric effects of crack cocaine builds quickly, so after several doses the user must take more and more of the drug to feel high. Because the euphoric effect of crack cocaine lasts only a few minutes, crack cocaine users feel compelled to take repeat doses every few minutes. Users of crack cocaine experience a vicious cycle of high followed by depression followed by high.
The use of crack cocaine alters the process by which the brain works by affecting a change in the way neurons in the brain communicate. Nerve cells, called neurons, communicate with each other by supplying the brain with chemicals called neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters allow information in the form of electrical impulses to be passed through the body. This process works by neurotransmitters attaching themselves to certain areas in the brain. One of the neurotransmitters affected by crack cocaine is called dopamine. Dopamine is released by neurons in the part of the brain that controls feelings of pleasure and well-being. This area is in the limbic system of the brain. Normally, once dopamine has transferred to a nerve cell's receptors and caused a reaction in a cell, it is transferred back to the neuron that released it.
Crack cocaine causes damage to this system and blocks the process of transfer. Dopamine then builds up in the gap synapse between neurons. As a result, for crack cocaine users, dopamine keeps affecting a nerve cell after it should have stopped. That's why someone who uses crack cocaine feels an extra sense of euphoria and pleasure although crack cocaine may bring on intense feelings of pleasure while it is being used, later crack cocaine can damage the ability to feel pleasure. Research suggests that long-term crack cocaine use may reduce the amount of dopamine or the number of dopamine receptors in the brain. When this happens, nerve cells must have crack cocaine to communicate properly. Without crack cocaine, the brain can't send enough dopamine into the receptors to create a feeling of pleasure.
If a long-term user of cocaine stops taking crack cocaine, the person feels an extremely strong craving for it, because without crack cocaine he or she can't feel nearly as much pleasure. Smoking crack cocaine is an especially dangerous means of cocaine use because of the high concentrations of crack cocaine it introduces into the bloodstream. These high doses of crack cocaine can overtax the cardiovascular system. Cocaine is highly addictive, especially in the crack cocaine form. In studies, animals addicted to crack cocaine preferred the drug to food, even when it meant they would starve. Many users report being hooked after only one use. The addiction to crack cocaine is both psychological and physical.
Crack cocaine users usually feel an initial rush or sense of well being, of having more energy, and being more alert. This effect of crack cocaine quickly wears off, often leaving the crack cocaine user feeling more down or depressed than before. This down feeling leads the crack cocaine addict to use more crack cocaine, sometimes just to feel normal. Over a period of time, the amount of crack cocaine needed and the frequency of crack cocaine use to achieve a high have to be increased. Feelings of depression can become chronic. Crack cocaine addicts frequently turn to other drugs to relieve the down feeling when more crack cocaine is not available. When used together, these drugs and crack cocaine can prove even more deadly than when used alone.
Despite a popular myth, crack cocaine does not enhance performance whether it be on the job, in sports, at school, or with a sexual partner. On the contrary, long-term crack cocaine use can lead to loss of concentration, irritability, loss of memory, paranoia, loss of energy, anxiety, and a loss of interest in sex. The controlling effect crack cocaine has on an addict's life can lead to exclusion of all other facets of life. A crack cocaine habit can cost an addict thousands of dollars a week to maintain. Breaking a crack cocaine habit is not easy. How long and how difficult a task it may be varies from person to person. Treatment can be costly and the craving for crack cocaine may persist for long periods of time.
The 1990 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that during 1990, 6.2 million persons had tried cocaine. Of that number, 662,000 used cocaine once a week or more and 336,000 used the drug daily or almost daily. In 1990, 1.6 million North Americans reported they had used cocaine in the past month; adolescents comprised 115,000 of that total, about 2.6 percent of the total adolescent population. Of the 1.6 million persons who used cocaine during the past month, approximately 500,000 had used crack cocaine. The National High School Senior Survey found that annual use of cocaine by high-school seniors at least once during their senior year peaked in 1985 at 13.1 percent. By 1990, it had declined to 5.3 percent. Use on a monthly basis by high-school seniors also peaked in 1985 at 6.7 percent, and has declined steadily, reaching 1.9 percent in 1990.
Crack cocaine stimulates the cells of the central nervous system and the cardiovascular and sympathetic nervous systems. Crack cocaine is also a local anesthetic that numbs the mucous membranes of the mouth, vagina, rectum, and eye. The feeling of stimulation that comes from crack cocaine is due to its activation of nerve cells in the brain that release a chemical (dopamine), which is associated with pleasure and a sense of alertness. Crack cocaine "tricks" the brain into believing it has been furnished with pleasure, such as food and sex.
Damage to body organs may occur as a result of using cocaine hydrochloride or crack cocaine. Inhaling cocaine hydrochloride may cause damage to the nasal cartilage. Rapid absorption of crack cocaine can trigger cardiac irregularities, heart attack and cardiac arrest. Inhalation of crack cocaine vapors can, over time, produce bronchitis and other respiratory complications.
Freebasing crack cocaine produces an especially strong immediate rush, which may lead to convulsions and even death. Body burnout, malnutrition, and possible liver damage are also attributed to crack cocaine use. Diseases of contamination, such as Hepatitis B, blood stream infections and AIDS, may occur due to injection of cocaine hydrochloride.
Women who use crack cocaine are far more likely to have miscarriages or spontaneous abortions. Risk of stroke and other complications in pregnancy due to elevated blood pressure may result from crack cocaine use. New research indicates a possible link between birth defects and crack cocaine use in women. Studies show babies born to crack cocaine addicts are more unresponsive and indifferent than other newborns.
The use of crack cocaine may cause psychological changes in the user. These effects may be a sense of increased self-esteem and confidence, depression, intense anxiety, confusion, hallucinations, irritability, repetition of tasks and a tendency to withdraw form normal activities. Crack cocaine psychosis is paranoid behavior that occurs as a result of overstimulation of the fright centers of the brain. Irrational violence can occur at even the slightest provocation.
