Cocaine/Crack

If you have additional concerns about drugs, you can refer to the links page for various agencies that assist youth with drug-related issues or you can contact your School Resource Officer or call 403-206-8399.

• What is cocaine?
• What can I expect if I use cocaine?
• What can happen down the road?
• How addictive is it?

Possessing, producing and trafficking in cocaine is illegal and can result in fines, a prison sentence and a criminal record.

What is cocaine?

Cocaine is a powerful drug made from the South American coca bush. Its street names include coke, C, snow, white, up and flake. It is sold as a fine white powder and street dealers sometimes dilute it with local painkillers such as benzocaine. Users often snort cocaine through the nose or they dissolve it in water and inject it into their veins.

drug can also be smoked in a purified form through a water pipe (freebasing) or in a concentrated form (rock) placed in a special smoking gear. Crack is cocaine with yeast added to it so it crackles when smoked. Others add the drugs to tobacco or marijuana cigarettes.

All three forms of cocaine have the same effects. However, injecting the drug produces these effects more quickly and intensely than snorting. Smoking it causes the most intense and addictive high.

What can I expect if I use cocaine?

Cocaine can make you feel intense pleasure, incredibly alert, energetic and confident. Using cocaine increases your breath rate, heart rate and blood pressure. It dilates your pupils, decreases your appetite and reduces your need to sleep.

Large doses of cocaine can produce:

euphoria severe agitation anxiety erratic and violent behavior twitching hallucinations blurred vision

headaches chest pains rapid breathing muscle spasms nausea fever

Overdosing can cause seizures, strokes, heart attacks, kidney failure, coma and death. Cocaine use has also been linked to suicides, murders and fatal accidents. Cocaine highs can last from five minutes to two hours. When users 'crash,' they feel very depressed, anxious and irritable. Many users take repeated doses to maintain the high and avoid crashing. Some users try to modify the effects or stop binges with drugs like alcohol, tranquilizers or heroin.

What can happen down the road?

Young people who use drugs heavily may not learn how to solve problems, handle their emotions, and become mature, responsible adults.

Heavy cocaine use leads to:

sexual problems depression restlessness agitatation nervousness sleeping disorders eating disorders

dramatic mood swings feelings of invincibility hallucinations paranoia high blood pressure irregular heartbeats

Repeated use may cause long-lasting problems with memory, attention and behaviour. Chronic snorting causes stuffed, runny, chapped or bleeding noses, and holes in the barrier separating the nostrils (septum). As with any drug taken intravenously (by needle), users who share needles while injecting cocaine risk infections including hepatitis, HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) and flesh-eating disease. Freebase and crack smokers report severe throat and lung irritations. They may cough up black phlegm or blood. If you use drugs often, you can develop serious personal problems.

Using drugs can become more important than your family and friends. You may continue using even when your job or schoolwork is suffering, or when you run into financial or legal problems.

Using cocaine during pregnancy can cause miscarriage or premature birth. The baby may have a small head, low birth weight, blocked blood vessels in the brain, and other physical problems. The baby may also be excessively irritable and have sleeping and feeding problems. As well, the babies are born addicted to cocaine. Infants, breastfed by mothers using cocaine, can suffer seizures and extreme irritability.

How addictive is it?

People who use cocaine heavily over a long period of time or binge for several days at a time develop a tolerance for it, meaning that they need to use more cocaine to feel the same effects. Regular users can develop a powerful psychological dependence - a constant craving for the drug. They continue to use the drug even when it causes overwhelming physical, mental and social problems. When dependent users stop using cocaine, they go through withdrawal.

Symptoms of withdrawal include:

rapid, shallow breathing muscle spasms nausea fever sleeping disorders

eating disorders depression anxiety irritability cravings to use again

For more information about cocaine and crack, visit streetdrugs.org.



Updated: Wednesday, July 8, 2009 1:40 PM

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