Cocaine: What You Need to Know - Complete Educational Summary

COCAINE

MITÄ SINUN ON TIEDETTÄVÄ

NARCONON EUROOPPA

Cocaine is a Drug

THE WORD COCAINE REFERS TO THE DRUG IN A WHITE POWDER OR CRYSTAL FORM.

In its crystal form, it is called crack cocaine. (See Crack Cocaine, What You Need To Know in this series of booklets.) The powder is usually mixed with substances such as corn starch, talcum powder, sugar or other drugs, such as procaine (a local anesthetic) or amphetamine.

Mitä kokaiini on?

Extracted from coca leaves, cocaine was originally developed as a painkiller. It is most often sniffed, with the powder absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. It can also be ingested or rubbed into the gums.

To more rapidly absorb the drug into the body, users inject it, but this substantially increases the risk of overdose. Inhaling it as smoke or vapor speeds absorption with less health risk than injection.

A DEADLY WHITE POWDER

Cocaine is one of the most dangerous drugs because once a person begins taking it, it is almost impossible to become free of its grip physically and mentally. Physically, it stimulates key receptors (nerve endings that sense changes in the body) within the brain that, in turn, create a euphoria to which users quickly develop a tolerance. Only higher dosages and more frequent use can bring about the same effect.

Today, cocaine is a worldwide, multibillion-dollar enterprise. Users encompass all ages, occupations and economic levels, even schoolchildren as young as eight years old.

Cocaine use can lead to death from respiratory (breathing) failure, stroke, cerebral hemorrhage (bleeding in the brain) or heart attack. Children of cocaine-addicted mothers come into the world as addicts themselves. Many suffer birth defects and a lot of other problems.

Despite its dangers, cocaine use continues to increase—likely because users find it so difficult to stop.

How It Is Used

Snorted

White powder snorted into nasal tissues

Injected

Dissolved in water and injected into veins

Smoked

Enters bloodstream through the lungs

THE COCAINE THAT YOU SEE IN THE MOVIES is a white powder that is snorted into the nasal tissues or dissolved in water and injected into the veins.

Injecting the drug is the most dangerous because the cocaine molecules are delivered to the brain more quickly and are in more concentrated form than when it is snorted.

These 3 methods of getting cocaine into the bloodstream are dangerous and lead to addiction. Each method varies in how long the high lasts. The faster cocaine is absorbed into the bloodstream and delivered to the brain, the more impact a user gets from the drug.

Usage Patterns

Often a person uses cocaine for one to three days, becomes exhausted from the drug's stimulating effects and then takes a break from its regular use for the same amount of time or longer.

However, if you track with the thinking of the cocaine or crack cocaine user after he has been on one of these cocaine "runs," you will see that he is compulsively thinking about the ways he can ensure he will have plenty of this drug in the future.

Many cocaine addicts will admit they became emotionally addicted to the drug after their first euphoric high.

International Statistics

#2

Most Trafficked Illegal Drug

in the World

COCAINE IS THE SECOND-MOST TRAFFICKED ILLEGAL DRUG IN THE WORLD.

The most recent statistics show that international seizures of cocaine have continued to increase and now total seven hundred and fifty six metric tons, with the largest quantities intercepted in South America, followed by North America.

Europe

  • • Cocaine is the second-most commonly used illegal drug in Europe
  • • Among young people (15-34 years): 7.5 million have used cocaine at least once
  • • 3.5 million used it in the last year
  • • 1.5 million used it in the past month
  • • Roughly half of European dance club patrons have been high on cocaine

United States

  • • Most frequently mentioned illegal drug in hospital emergency departments
  • • About 500,000 people per year arrive at emergency rooms for cocaine abuse problems
  • • Continues to be reported to Drug Abuse Warning Network

Identifying Cocaine Use

POWDERED COCAINE IS A FINE, WHITE POWDER THAT NUMBS THE TONGUE IF IT IS TASTED.

Cocaine may be sold in very small plastic bags or vials. Tightly rolled dollar bills have been used for snorting coke into the nose.

Physical Signs

Dilated Pupils

Eyes sensitive to light

Runny Nose

From snorting

Fast Heart Rate

Increased cardiovascular activity

Burned Lips/Fingers

From smoking

Behavioral Signs

Poor Judgment
Aggressiveness
Unusual Excitement
Paranoia

Additional Warning Signs

• Heart Attacks

• Nosebleeds (snorting)

• Depression

• Track Marks (injecting)

• Apathy

• Long Periods of Sleep

• Enlarged Heart

• Constricted Blood Vessels

• Cardiac Arrest

• Agitation

• Need for Higher Doses

• Intense Cravings

A cocaine user may also dissolve and inject the drug, in which case you might find needle marks on arms, legs, hands, feet or neck, as well as discarded syringes left around the place cocaine is used.

Cocaine Street Names

Of the dozens of street terms for cocaine in use today, the most common are these:

Aunt Nora

Bernice

Binge

Blow

C

Charlie

Coke

Dust

Flake

Mojo

Nose Candy

Paradise

Sneeze

Sniff

Snow

Toot

White

Common Drug Combinations

Cocaine and Marijuana:

Banano, Blunt, Primos, Bazooka, P-Dogs, 51, Sherman Stick, Tio, Splitting, Woo-Woo, Woo Blunt, Woolies, Woolas

Cocaine and Heroin:

Speedball, Belushi, Boy-Girl, H & C, Murder One, One and One, Smoking Gun, Snowball, Whiz Bang

Cocaine and Meth:

Shabu, Snow Seals

Cocaine and Ecstasy:

Bumping Up

Effects of Cocaine

COCAINE CAUSES A SHORT-LIVED, INTENSE HIGH THAT IS IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED BY THE OPPOSITE—intense depression, edginess and a craving for more of the drug.

People who use it often don't eat or sleep properly. They can experience greatly increased heart rate, muscle spasms and convulsions. The drug can make people feel paranoid, angry, hostile and anxious even when they aren't high.

Lyhyen aikavälin vaikutukset

Loss of appetite
Increased heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature
Contracted blood vessels
Increased rate of breathing
Dilated pupils
Disturbed sleep patterns
Nausea
Hyper-stimulation
Bizarre, erratic, sometimes violent behavior
Hallucinations, hyper-excitability, irritability
Tactile hallucination that creates the illusion of bugs burrowing under the skin
Intense euphoria
Anxiety and paranoia
Depression
Intense drug craving
Panic and psychosis
Convulsions, seizures and sudden death from high doses (even one time)
Kidney, brain and lung damage

Pitkän aikavälin vaikutukset

Permanent damage to blood vessels of heart and brain
High blood pressure, leading to heart attacks, strokes and death
Liver, kidney and lung damage
Destruction of tissues in nose if sniffed
Respiratory failure if smoked
Infectious diseases and abscesses if injected
Malnutrition, weight loss
Severe tooth decay
Auditory and tactile hallucinations
Sexual problems, reproductive damage and infertility (for both men and women)
Disorientation, apathy, confused exhaustion
Irritability and mood disturbances
Increased frequency of risky behavior
Delirium or psychosis
Severe depression
Tolerance and addiction (even after just one use)

Regardless of how much of the drug is used or how frequently, cocaine increases the risk that the user will experience a heart attack, stroke, seizure or respiratory (breathing) failure, any of which can result in sudden death.

The phrase "dope fiend" was typically used many years ago to describe the negative side effects of constant cocaine use. As tolerance to the drug increases, it becomes necessary to take greater and greater quantities to get the same high.

As cocaine interferes with the way the brain processes chemicals, a person needs more and more just to feel normal. People who become addicted to cocaine (as with most other drugs) lose interest in other areas of life.

Coming down from the drug causes depression so severe that a person will do almost anything to get the drug—even commit murder. And if he can't get cocaine, the depression can get so intense it can drive the addict to suicide.

Health Risks

Brain Damage

A cocaine user is far more likely to suffer brain damage, although he will probably not know about the effects until the damage becomes severe. Until that time changes in the brain can be silent—in other words, not show symptoms while the problem advances.

Scans of the brains of cocaine users compared with the brains of nonusers show that arteries and veins in the brain become narrow after cocaine use. This is because of the well-known vascular (blood vessels) constriction associated with cocaine. It may only take a small amount of the drug to cause this change in occasional users.

Risk of Heart Attack

The use of cocaine can have serious effects on the user's heart, all the way up to and including cardiac arrest. Unfortunately this news is seldom broadcast to cocaine users, so they don't know what they are getting into when they use the drug.

Because of severe stresses placed on the heart and arteries, heart symptoms can show up even on the first use of the drug or as a result of infrequent use. Of course, chronic or heavy users stress their cardiovascular systems much more severely.

Cardiac Arrest Causes

• A cocaine-induced heart attack can be severe enough to kill

• A heart can be driven into a frantic fast rate of beating that won't stop until death occurs

• A thickened, less flexible heart (cardiomyopathy) can begin to beat irregularly or simply go into arrest

The most important thing a cocaine user should realize is the strain he is placing on his own body and the risk of sudden death. The risk exists for any cocaine user, with any amount of the drug, at any time, because there is no way of knowing who will develop serious symptoms and who will not.

Cocaine: A Short History

COCA IS ONE OF THE OLDEST, MOST POTENT AND MOST DANGEROUS STIMULANTS OF NATURAL ORIGIN.

3000 BC - Ancient Incas

Three thousand years before the birth of Christ, ancient Incas in the Andes mountains of South America chewed coca leaves to get their hearts racing and to speed their breathing to counter the effects of living in thin mountain air.

1532 - Spanish Invasion

Native Peruvians chewed coca leaves only during religious ceremonies. This taboo was broken when Spanish soldiers invaded Peru in 1532. Indian laborers in Spanish silver mines were kept supplied with coca leaves because it made them easier to control and exploit.

1859 - First Extraction

In 1859, cocaine was first extracted from coca leaves by German chemist Albert Niemann. It was not until the 1880s that it started to be popularized in the medical community.

1884 - Freud's Promotion

Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who used the drug himself, was the first to broadly promote cocaine as a tonic to cure depression and sexual impotence. In 1884, he published an article entitled "Über Coca" (About Coke) which promoted the benefits of cocaine, calling it a "magical substance."

Freud kept promoting cocaine to his close friends, one of whom ended up suffering from paranoid hallucinations with white snakes creeping over his skin. One of Freud's patients died from a high dosage he prescribed.

1886 - Coca-Cola

In 1886, the popularity of the drug got a further boost when John Pemberton included coca leaves as an ingredient in his new soft drink, Coca-Cola. The euphoric and energizing effects on the consumer helped to skyrocket the popularity of Coca-Cola by the turn of the century.

1850s-1900s - Widespread Use

From the 1850s to the early 1900s, cocaine and opium-laced elixirs, tonics and wines were broadly used by people of all social classes. Notable figures who promoted the miraculous effects of cocaine tonics included inventor Thomas Edison and actress Sarah Bernhardt.

1903-1922 - Growing Awareness

Public pressure forced the Coca-Cola company to remove the cocaine from the soft drink in 1903. By 1905, it had become popular to snort cocaine and within five years hospitals started reporting cases of nasal damage. In 1912, the US Government reported 5,000 cocaine-related deaths in one year and by 1922, the drug was officially banned.

1970s - Resurgence

In the 1970s, cocaine emerged as the fashionable new drug for entertainers and businesspeople. At some American universities the percentage of students who experimented with cocaine increased tenfold between 1970 and 1980.

1980s-1990s - Drug War Era

In the late 1970s, Colombian drug traffickers began setting up an elaborate network for smuggling cocaine into the US. By the late 1980s, cocaine was no longer thought of as the drug of choice for the wealthy. By then it had the reputation of America's most dangerous and addictive drug, linked with poverty, crime and death.

2008 - Present

As of 2008, cocaine had become the second-most-trafficked illegal drug in the world. In the early 1990s, Colombian drug cartels produced and exported 500-800 tons of cocaine a year. The large cartels were dismantled by law-enforcement agencies in the mid-1990s but were replaced by smaller groups—with more than 300 known active drug-smuggling organizations in Colombia today.

Mitä huumeet ovat

LÄÄKKEET OVAT POHJIMMILTAAN MYRKKYJÄ.

Vaikutus riippuu otetusta määrästä.

Pieni määrä

Toimii stimulantti (nopeuttaa sinua)

Suurempi määrä

Toimii rauhoittava (hidastaa sinua)

Vielä suurempi määrä

Myrkyt ja voi tappaa

Tämä pätee kaikkiin lääkkeisiin. Vain vaikutuksen aikaansaamiseksi tarvittava määrä on erilainen.

Monilla lääkkeillä on kuitenkin toinenkin ongelma: ne vaikuttavat suoraan mieleen. Ne voivat vääristää käyttäjän käsitystä siitä, mitä hänen ympärillään tapahtuu. Tämän seurauksena henkilön toiminta voi olla outoa, järjetöntä, sopimatonta ja jopa tuhoisaa.

Huumeet estävät myös kaikki aistimukset, niin toivotut kuin ei-toivotutkin. Vaikka ne siis lievittävät kipua lyhytaikaisesti, ne myös hävittävät kyvyn ja valppauden ja hämärtävät ihmisen ajattelua.

Tietoa lääkkeistä

Lääkkeet ovat lääkkeitä, joiden tarkoituksena on saada kehosi toimimaan paremmin nopeuttamalla, hidastamalla tai muuttamalla jotakin kehon toimintatapaa. Joskus ne ovat välttämättömiä. Lääkkeet ovat kuitenkin edelleen huumeita: ne toimivat piristävinä tai rauhoittavina aineina, ja liikaa niitä voi tappaa sinut. Jos lääkkeitä käytetään väärin, ne voivat olla yhtä vaarallisia kuin laittomat huumeet.

Tietoa Narcononista

NARCONON (MEANING "NO NARCOTICS") drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation program is open to all who desire to end their addictions and lead productive, drug-free lives.

Narconon-ohjelmassa ei ainoastaan käsitellä huumeiden väärinkäytön heikentäviä vaikutuksia mieleen ja kehoon, vaan siinä autetaan myös selvittämään, miksi henkilö ylipäätään kääntyi huumeiden puoleen. Tämän tuloksena kymmenet tuhannet ihmiset ovat päässeet Narconon-ohjelmasta uuteen, huumeidenkäytöstä vapaaseen elämään.

Huumekuntoutuksen lisäksi Narcononin huumeidenkäytön ehkäisytyöntekijät ovat valistaneet miljoonia koululaisia. Narcononilla on yli viidenkymmenen vuoden kokemus huumekasvatuksesta, ja se on todistetusti ollut tehokas keino pitää nuoret erossa huumeista.

Sanasto

Abscess

An area on the skin or in the body that is swollen and full of pus (thick yellow liquid that forms in infected tissue).

Andit

Suuri vuoristojärjestelmä, joka ulottuu pohjoisesta etelään noin 4500 kilometriä Etelä-Amerikan länsiosassa.

Auditory

Of or relating to the sense of hearing.

Cardiac arrest

A complete failure of the heart to pump blood, resulting in a loss of consciousness, an absence of pulse and breathing.

Cardiovascular

Relating to both the heart and the blood vessels.

Cartel

A criminal organization that supplies drug distribution and dealing operations.

Compulsively

In a way that is caused by an impulse that cannot be resisted or controlled, even when it is contrary to one's own will.

Convulsion

Uncontrollable violent shaking of the body or part of the body.

Heikentävä

Jonkun tekeminen fyysisesti tai henkisesti heikoksi.

Delirium

A state of extreme mental restlessness, confused speech and altered perceptions.

Dilated

With the pupil widened or expanded so that more light is admitted into the eye.

Elusive

Difficult to achieve.

Enterprise

Any systematic purposeful activity or type of activity, especially one that is undertaken with an economic or commercial end in view.

Euphoria

A feeling of great happiness and well-being.

Euphoric

Characterized by euphoria (a feeling of great happiness and well-being).

Fiend

Someone who is completely obsessed with a particular thing or idea.

Lapsettomuus

Tilanne, jossa ei voi saada lapsia.

Invulnerability, strong sense of

A feeling that one is in a state of being incapable of being damaged, hurt or affected by anything.

Kidney

One of two organs in the lower back that separate waste products from the blood and make urine. The kidneys also produce several types of chemical substances in the body, including one that helps balance salt and potassium levels.

Aliravitsemus

Terveellisten elintarvikkeiden puute ruokavaliossa tai epäterveellisten elintarvikkeiden liiallinen saanti, mikä johtaa fyysisiin haittoihin.

Muddy up

Tehdä jostakin asiasta sekavaa tai epäselvää, kuvaannollisesti niin kuin jos sekoittaisit mutaa veteen ja tekisit siitä epäselvempää.

Painkiller

A drug that relieves pain. Mild painkillers like aspirin do not require a prescription, but stronger painkillers like morphine are only prescribed by doctors. Nonprescription use is illegal.

Paranoid

Irrationally and obsessively believing that other people cannot be trusted and want to cause harm.

Potion

A liquid to be drunk that is supposedly medicinal, magical, poisonous, etc.

Psykologinen

Mielen, mentaalinen.

Psychosis

A severe form of mental illness in which someone cannot handle himself or his environment well enough to survive and must be cared for to protect others from him or to protect him from himself.

Rationaalinen

Ajattele järkevästi ja järkevästi.

Rauhoittava

Lääke, jota käytetään aiheuttamaan uneliaisuutta ja lievittämään tilapäisesti kipua ja hermostuneisuutta tai levottomuutta.

Seizure

A sudden attack or spasm consisting of violent movement, convulsive jerking of a muscle, group of muscles or other parts of the body.

Stimulantti

Mikä tahansa aine, joka tilapäisesti lisää jonkin elintärkeän prosessin tai elimen toimintaa.

Aivohalvaus

Aivoihin johtavan verisuonen tukkeutuminen tai puhkeaminen, joka aiheuttaa riittämättömän hapensaannin ja voi vakavuudesta riippuen aiheuttaa oireita, kuten heikkoutta, kehon osien halvaantumista, puhevaikeuksia jne.

Taboo

Something prohibited or forbidden by tradition or convention.

Tactile

Of or related to the sense of touch.

Tonic

A medicine taken to give a feeling of energy or well-being.

Pyyhi pois

Poista tai poista jokin asia kokonaan.

Vieroitusoireet

Epämiellyttävät fyysiset ja psyykkiset reaktiot, joita riippuvainen henkilö kokee lopettaessaan huumeiden käytön.

Discover more educational articles about coacaine

❓ FAQ – Cocaine Education

What are the real effects of cocaine on the body and mind?
Cocaine speeds up the nervous system, leading to short-term energy but long-term damage to the heart, brain, and emotional stability.

 

Can a person become addicted after just a few uses?
Yes. Cocaine can create psychological and physical dependence very quickly—even with casual or party use.

 

Is it true that cocaine makes you more productive or focused?
That’s a myth. While it may create a short-lived boost, it disrupts sleep, judgment, and motivation in the long run.

 

How can I talk to someone who may be using cocaine?
Start with calm, non-judgmental questions. Share real facts. And always offer help—not blame.