The report usually says something like "crack cocaine was found in his or her system, along with several opiates."
Right away, you wonder why there had to be so many drugs. Why is it necessary to combine "several opiates" with the power of crack?
Opiates, depending on the brand, are potent enough on their own, which is why they're called narcotics. Taking several of them in conjunction with crack is a bit much.
Nevertheless, if you're a crack user, it doesn't matter that you have other drugs in you. Crack cocaine will demand that you use it though you know you've had enough.
Mixing a cocktail of prescription narcotics is serious enough. But when you add crack cocaine to it, it's a recipe for certain overdose.
Crack cocaine is in a league of its own, in terms of usage and addiction. Here, we'll explore the dark halls of this unrelenting monster drug and learn of its deadly secrets.
My research reveals the intimacy and cunning nature of crack's destructive lure, and from it I compiled 26 things to know before trying crack cocaine.
Street names
Familiarize yourself with the identifiers of crack cocaine. The worst thing you can do is be ignorant to group conversation when it could possibly be about turning you on to a drug as unyielding as crack.
24-7
Apple jacks
Badrock
Ball
Base
Beat
Candy
Chemical
Cloud
Cookies
Crack
Crumbs
Crunch & Munch
Devil drug
Dice
|
Piece
Primetime
Product
Raw
Rock(s)
Rockstar
Rox/Roxanne
Scrabble
Sleet
Snow coke
Sugar block
Topo (Spanish)
Tornado
Troop
Electric kool-aid
|
Fat bags
French fries
Glo
Gravel
Grit
Hail
Hardball
Hard rock
Hotcakes
Ice cube
Jelly beans
Kryptonite
Nuggets
Paste
|
- Crack cocaine is heated and smoked.
- This form of cocaine gets its name from the "cracking or popping" sound when heated.
- Crack is the most potent form of cocaine, being 75% to 100% pure.
- Smoking crack allows it to reach the brain quicker for an intense, immediate and short-lived high.
- Because crack is smoked, the user can become addicted after his or her first time trying crack.
- At first, crack is sold at prices low enough for teens to buy it. Once the person is addicted, the drug increases in direct ratio to the amount needed to support the habit.
- Using crack cocaine does irreparable damage to the body that worsens with age.
- Crack takes over the user's life, causing them to steal or even murder to obtain it.
- Crack destroys the body's chemistry as users have to use more frequently because the high is short-lasting.
- Crack cocaine is so addictive because it stimulates key pleasure centers in the brain, causing extremely heightened euphoria. Users are always trying to achieve the wonderland effect of their very first high.
- Crack users develop a quick tolerance and fail to achieve the same high from the same amount.
- Crack cocaine suppresses the digestive system and the natural sleep rhythm.
- The user experiences muscle spasms, convulsions, and increased heart rate.
- Users are often paranoid, anxious, angry and hostile, even when they aren't high.
- Whether it's the first time or the hundredth, crack cocaine use increases chances of heart attack, stroke, seizure and respiratory failure--any of which can result in sudden death.
- Crack cocaine highs are followed by intense depression, edginess, and sharp craving for more.
- Smoking crack causes gradual failure of major organs.
- Crack smoke doesn't remain potent for long, therefore, crack pipes are short so the user can benefit from all of the unusually short-lived high.
- Short pipes cause blistered lips or "crack lip".
- Prolonged crack cocaine use severely damages the heart, liver, and kidneys.
- Crack users are more susceptible infectious diseases.
- Malnutrition plagues crack smokers causing skin sores.
- As with other addictions, crack addicts lose interest in everything else, except obtaining their next rock.
- Crack cocaine produces one of the most powerful psychological dependencies.
- If an addict can't get crack cocaine, his or her depression can become intense enough to drive them to suicide.
- Crack use during pregnancy can cause miscarriage or cause the unborn baby to have a stroke, permanent brain damage or a heart attack.
Short-term effects of crack cocaine use
The effects of crack cocaine are more intense and more immediate because it is smoked.
- Increased heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature
- Contracted blood vessels, making the user susceptible to heart attack
- Increased breathing rate
- Disturbed sleep patterns
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea
- Hyper-stimulation
- Bizarre, erratic, sometimes violent behavior
- Hallucinations, hyperexcitability, 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 on the first try)
Long-term effects of crack cocaine use
- Malnutrition, weight loss
- Severe tooth decay
- Disorientation, apathy, confused exhaustion
- Auditory and tactile hallucinations
- Sexual problems, reproductive damage and infertility in both genders
- Increased frequency of risky behavior
- Delirium or psychosis
- Severe depression
- Severe chest pains, respiratory failure
- Infectious diseases and abscesses if injected
- Liver, kidney and lung damage
- Permanent damage to blood vessels of ear and brain, high blood pressure, leading to heart attacks, strokes, and death
Withdrawal symptoms include irritability, depression, upset stomach, itching, insomnia, and drug craving.
Recovering addicts often encourage others to think well enough of themselves to at least do some research on the drug they're thinking about trying.
After all, the drug will still be there after a couple of days of meaningful research, from which you might even save your life.
Sources:
Article was written by Peggy Hatchet James
Copyright © 2015
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