What is cocaine?

Cocaine is a drug made from the leaves of the coca plant. This plant is processed in different ways to make different types of cocaine. Cocaine is a stimulant drug. This means it speeds up the brain and nervous system.
Types of cocaine

Cocaine hydrochloride


This is the most common white powder type of cocaine. In this form it is sniffed through the nose (snorted) or injected. It cannot be smoked because burning destroys it.

Freebase cocaine / Crack cocaine


This is a chemically changed type of cocaine (alkaloidal cocaine). It can be smoked and this makes the user feel high quickly.
Crack is a type of freebase cocaine sold in the form of small crystals or rocks. It is usually smoked. People who sell cocaine often mix or cut the powder with other things that look the same to make the drug go further. Some mixed-in substances can have unpleasant or harmful effects. It is difficult to tell what the drug actually contains.
Effects of cocaine
What cocaine does to you depends on:
• how much you take
• the type of cocaine you take
• your height and weight
• your general health
• your mood
• your past experience with cocaine
• whether you use cocaine on its own or with other drugs
• whether you use alone or with others, at home or at a party, etc.
Immediate effects

Small amounts
When you have a small amount of cocaine, the effects can last from a few minutes to a few hours. You may:
• feel good and confident
• be excited or upset
• take more risks than usual
• be less hungry
• feel alert and energetic
• feel aggressive
• want to have sex.
Effects on your body may include that:
• your heart beats faster
• your body temperature rises
• the pupils in your eyes get bigger
• you move more quickly than usual.

Large amounts
If you take a large amount of cocaine you might:
• get headaches
• feel dizzy
• feel restless
• become violent or aggressive
• find it hard to concentrate
• lose interest in sex
• not feel like doing anything
• have chest pain
• have a heart attack
• have convulsions (fits)
• overdose (see below)
• have psychosis – a serious psychological problem when you hear voices, imagine things, get frightened that others want to hurt you.

 
Overdose
Overdose of cocaine can happen to anyone. Even small amounts may cause overdose with some people who have an especially strong reaction to it.
When a person overdoses, it may cause:
• faster, irregular or weak heartbeat
• breathing problems
• heart failure
• bleeding blood vessels in the brain
• death.
Mixing cocaine with other drugs

People who use cocaine sometimes take other drugs at the same time to cope with some of the things cocaine does to the body. Some people take drugs such as minor tranquillisers, alcohol, marijuana or heroin to help them sleep. This can make you dependent on several drugs at once. For example, some people need cocaine each day to get them going and minor tranquillisers each night to get to sleep. This type of dependence can lead to many serious physical and psychological problems. Mixing different drugs can also make you more likely to overdos
Cocaine and pregnancy

Anyone can develop a tolerance to cocaine. Tolerance means that you must take more of the drug to feel the same effects you used to have with lower amounts. Dependence on cocaine means that it takes up a lot of your thoughts, emotions and activities. Dependence on cocaine can lead to a variety of health, money, legal, work and relationship problems. Not all people who use cocaine are dependent.
Tolerance and dependence
Anyone can develop a tolerance to benzodiazepines or other drugs. Tolerance means that you must take more of the drug to feel the same effects you used to have with smaller amounts or lower doses. This may happen very quickly with benzodiazepines. Dependence on benzodiazepines means that it takes up a lot of your thoughts, emotions and activities. You spend a lot of time thinking aboutusing benzodiazepines, looking for them, using them and getting over the effects of using them. You also find it difficult to stop using or control how much you use. Dependence can lead to a variety of health, money, legal, work and relationship problems. Not all people who ever use benzodiazepines become dependent. But it is very easy to become dependent on benzodiazepines and it can happen within four weeks.
Withdrawal
Cocaine-dependent people may find it very hard to stop using or cut down because of withdrawal symptoms. These can include:
• wanting cocaine very badly (cravings)
• feeling angry or upset
• feeling sick
• vomiting
• shaking
• tiredness
• weakness
• hunger
• long but disturbed sleep
• muscle pain
• deep depression (feeling very down or sad)
• wanting to kill yourself.
These symptoms are usually fairly short-lived and most withdrawing people don’t need medication. However, if you are worried about withdrawal, contact your doctor or health centre.
Long term effects

If you use cocaine often and for a long time you may:
• become dependent
• become aggressive, violent or have more arguments than usual
• have relationship, work, money, legal or housing problems.
The way a person takes cocaine over a long time can also cause some problems:
• Snorting cocaine can lead to nosebleeds, sinus problems and damage inside the nose.
• Injecting cocaine with used or dirty needles or other equipment makes you more likely to get infected with HIV, hepatitis B or C, and get blood poisoning (septicaemia) and skin abscesses (sores with pus).
• Injecting cocaine over a long time can result in:
– blocked blood vessels (caused by the things sometimes mixed with cocaine) leading to serious damage to the body’s organs such as the liver, heart, etc
– inflamed blood vessels and abscesses
– a person picking at their own skin, sometimes resulting in serious damage that needs skin grafts (operations) to heal. • Smoking freebase cocaine (crack) can cause breathing difficulties, a long-term cough, chest pain and lung damage.