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Cocaine Analysis – Use, Abuse, and Effects

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January 24, 2012

Have you ever been stunned by the power of illicit drugs? Have you watched a drug destroy a friend or family member? Maybe you or someone you love is addicted right now.

Cocaine is often the culprit of these intense addictions, and frequently elicits short and long term effects that can tear the fabric of a family, a life, or even a culture.

This post deals with the danger of cocaine dependence, three ways cocaine is taken, the risks surrounding cocaine, the short and long term effects of cocaine, and the use and production of cocaine in India.

Cocaine Dependence

Cocaine has an overwhelming impact on the brain’s “reward center,” the part of the brain associated with the individual’s desire for food, water and sex. The drug’s obsessive nature often turns into absolute dependency. A chart demonstrating the prevalence of cocaine dependency Beating out ecstasy, LSD, alcohol, tobacco and others; extensive research shows that after heroin, cocaine is a drug more addicts eventually depend on than any other illicit substance.

How is cocaine administered?

Essentially, there is no safe way to use cocaine – no matter the method you choose, toxins are absorbed and can lead to acute cardiovascular or cerebrovascular emergencies and could even result in sudden death. The most common cocaine administration techniques include: Smoking, Injecting and Snorting.

Smoking: The process of smoking cocaine involves inhaling cocaine vapor or smoke or smoke directly into the lungs where it is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream.
Injecting: Injection involves inserting a needle through your skin and pressing liquid cocaine directly into your bloodstream.
Snorting: Cocaine powder is inhaled directly through the nose where it is absorbed quickly into the nasal tissue and enters the bloodstream.

Is Cocaine Risky?

The risk involved in any drug abuse scenario can be broken down into a cycle of events.

A cycle demonstrating the stages of Cocaine addiction Each event has its own motive and effect.

Using it: Typically cocaine use is initialized by an emotional response. The first-time cocaine user may feel a desire for social comfort, excitement, or a release from reality.
Enjoying it: Often first time you use cocaine, an energetic and elated emotion initially overtakes your body. But then it goes away and you want to do it again.
Abusing it: Cocaine has become part of your life, and you’ve essentially lost control over it.
Dependent on it: At this point you need cocaine in order to function normally.
Increase Dose: Typically, the longer you use a drug, the larger the doses become. This is the most dangerous step in the cycle as overdoses can lead to critical medical conditions and even death.

Cocaine Effects

Have you ever had a dream that a thousand bugs were crawling all over you, and there is no escape? I know I have; thankfully I woke up! Many cocaine addicts experience what is called “coke bugs” – a fictitious sensation that feels like hundreds of tiny bugs are creeping all over your skin, and they don’t wake up.

Cocaine has many other short and long term effects. Following intake, active cocaine molecules reach your brain in as few as ten seconds. The resulting “high” elicited by the drug can last for as long as thirty minutes. Immediately following this “high” the user feels extremely restless, unpleasant, and has incredible cravings for more cocaine.

The initial high given to you by cocaine is never reached again. And the “lows” felt after get worse and worse. Some long term effects include:

Suicidal thoughts
Intense mood swings
Chronic headaches
Addiction
Death

Cocaine Production – Use in India

Bollywood actor Fardeen Khan’s recent charge for buying cocaine from a drug peddler is symbolic of the cocaine addiction problem in India. Cocaine isn’t just a drug in India, it is a symbol. When you use cocaine people know about it, and people know that you have the money to do so.

Because of the symbol surrounding cocaine, its production in India has a certain motivation, as it is a big money maker. Typically cocaine sells by the ounce for Approximately Rs 100,000.

As an expensive and intensely addictive drug, cocaine is one of India’s most dangerous substances.