Cocaine Facts
September 13th 2007
Cocaine is an offshoot of the Coca Leaf, which was once considered a perfectly legitimate, energizing and revitalizing item used for medical purposes. In the early days of Coca-Cola, it was even used as an ingredient. Concerns about health risks surfaced, however, and all products of the Coca Leaf went underground. Cocaine, the most powerful product of the Coca Leaf, surged to popularity in the 1980’s. It was dealt on the streets in small, cheap batches, often mixed with “fake” cocaine product like baking powder, sugar or laundry detergent. Cocaine is still a popular drug today, though not nearly as prevalent as a few decades ago. Cocaine can be found in powder form or in rock form, known as crack cocaine.
The powder form of cocaine is typically snorted or dissolved in liquid and injected. The rock form of cocaine is typically smoked. Cocaine may cause paranoia, hoarseness, a chronically runny or bloody nose, aggressiveness, rapid heart rate, insomnia, panic attacks, heart and lung disease and ultimately death. The more frequently a person uses cocaine, the shorter and less intense their high will be. However, a high typically lasts 5 to 10 minutes from smoking and 15 to 30 minutes from snorting. Cocaine is a very highly addictive and dangerous drug. When cocaine use is combined with alcohol consumption, the result can become deadly even faster.
Once formed, cocaine can be a very difficult habit to break. However, there are a variety of treatment options available. These range from support groups to behavioral therapy to substitute medicines that help ease the letdown during detox. It is important that a person makes the decision to seek recovery from cocaine addiction, to live the healthiest and most productive life possible – but no one can make that choice for the addict.
