Cocaine
Anitha Machupalli
Description of Cocaine
addictive central nervous system stimulant that is injected, snorted, smoked
chemical formula: C17H21NO4
powdered drug that comes from the coca plant grown in South America
Classification of Cocaine
- Schedule II Drug: high rate abuse drug
Slang/Street Names of Cocaine
- Coke, snow, blow, flake
Ways to Ingest Cocaine
- inject, snort, and smoke
- injecting and snorting are the most dangerous because it brings it straight into your bloodstream
Medicinal Uses of Cocaine
- used as local anesthetic for eye and nasal surgery
- helps reduce bleeding in the nose and used as anesthesia for before procedures
How Cocaine alters Consciousness
Cocaine causes repetitive behavior. People use it to gain happiness with no achievement. It short-circuits the brain and brings pleasure with no accomplishment. Those who are depressed or in pain will over abuse cocaine to become happy. Pleasure and pain are involved with the hedonic control system. This system like to have an equilibrium and over abuse can create a new equilibrium. With using cocaine too much, the body will be euphoric. But once you stop using cocaine, you will experience extreme withdrawal. Cocaine users will describe their life as colorless and unexciting without it.
Before the use, you would experience both happiness and sadness. But once you use cocaine, you will experience happiness only. This can be a bad thing because once you stop using, you will experience the effects of withdrawal.
Effects of Cocaine
- triggers key pleasure centers in the brain and you will experience euphoria
- Short-term: depression, if you do not use it as often; disturbed sleep patterns
- Long-term: tolerance and addiction; auditory and tactile hallucinations; confused exhaustion
- Short-term: increased heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature; nausea; contracted blood vessels
- Long-term: respiratory failure; tooth decay; liver, kidney, and lung failure; chest pains
- Short-term: after using cocaine, effects of euphoria lasts about 15-30 minutes
- Long-term: failure of glands are life-long effects of using cocaine
Dependence
- after using cocaine of the same dose, your body soon adapt to it. It builds up a tolerance of cocaine, so you have to use higher and higher amounts of cocaine each time.
- cocaine becomes top priority and they loose interest in their favorite things befor using cocaine
- intense craving for cocaine, fatigue, and loss of appetite
Myth of Cocaine
- Myth: Cocaine makes you a better athlete and worker.
- Fact: It puts you at the risk of losing your job
Citations
- http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/cocaine
- http://www.acmt.net/Cocaine.html#Q4
- http://www.mountnittany.org/articles/healthsheets/843
- http://www.intropsych.com/ch03_states/cocaine.html
- http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/crackcocaine/why-is-crack-cocaine-so-highly-addictive.html
- http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/crackcocaine/effects-of-crack-cocaine.html
- http://www.dependency.net/learn/cocaine/
- http://youtu.be/vL_tiB3lwI0