Drugs are overly expensive. Despite this, there are a lot of people who want to use them. There are a large number of drugs that cause a high. Most people wonder: what is crack? This is a smoking drug, after the use of which there is a strong buzz.
What is Crack, why is it dangerous?
Crack is a type of cocaine and is characterized by the presence of certain distinctive features. In its composition, the drug is purer. Euphoria after drinking crack lasts for several minutes. This drug is quite addictive.
For the first time about the drug became known in the late 80s of the last century. The name of the drug comes from the English word and means a click or crack. Indeed, during the ignition of the substance, the drug addict hears its crackles.
Signs of crack use
Signs of crack use are quite varied. First of all, you can find out about this by dilated pupils. After smoking a drug, a drug addict has an increase in body temperature. The drug is negatively displayed on the pulse of a person who becomes more frequent. With the non-systematic use of the drug, an increase in blood pressure can be observed.
If a person in small quantities exceeds a single dose of the drug, then he becomes aggressive. Others notice inappropriate behavior. With a slight overdose of crack, trembling in the body is observed, as well as involuntary muscle contraction. Most drug addicts in this case complain of the appearance of dizziness. Quite often, the use of this drug leads to paranoia. The person becomes overly distrustful and irritable.
How not to fall into a trap?
Crack can quickly become addictive. If a person has tried this drug at least once, then he will definitely want to experience the feeling of euphoria again. After the use of the drug, its deposition in fatty tissues is observed. Further, its re-entry into the blood is observed and the occurrence of various effects.
In order to avoid the negative impact of crack, it is necessary to stop using it. This is a potent narcotic substance that can be addictive after the first smoking. If it so happens that a person has tried crack, then he needs to seek help from a medical center. Highly qualified specialists will provide psychological assistance, as well as cleanse the body, which will eliminate the possibility of developing addiction.
Consequences of using crack
The effects of crack use can be short-term or long-term. Crack is a fast acting drug. That is why, after a few minutes of high, a person has negative consequences in the form of:
- sore throat;
- insomnia;
- strong cough;
- Pain in the chest;
- Inability to breathe.
The drug causes constriction of blood vessels, which leads to an increase in blood pressure after its use.
After a certain time has elapsed after the onset of addiction, the addict develops serious physical ailments. Crack leads to a variety of lung diseases. In some cases, drug addicts are diagnosed with myocardial infarction. The drug wears out blood vessels, which leads to a stroke. The addict cannot relax and sleep normally. That is why he becomes vicious and aggressive. Against the background of taking crack, appetite is significantly reduced, as a result of which a person rapidly loses body weight.
Quite often, the production of the drug is carried out on the basis of chemicals, which leads to the appearance of severe asthmatic attacks in humans. Prolonged use of crack negatively affects the psyche of a drug addict. Quite often, people complain about the appearance of hallucinations, which are observed even after the end of the action of the narcotic substance. Drug addicts are very poorly oriented in what is happening. Crack leads to the development of psychotic states.
Regular use of crack leads to a decrease in immune defenses. He often develops various diseases. The effect of the drug is negatively reflected in the performance of the liver and kidneys. With its use, there is a rapid destruction of the teeth. Most drug addicts are diagnosed with hypertension.
Crack is a highly addictive drug that is quickly addictive.
Crack is one of the varieties of cocaine. It exists in the form of solid tiles that are not inhaled, but smoked. It often differs in a variety of colors, it can be of different shades: white, light pink, yellow. Crack owes its name to the British. The fact is that when the substance is heated, it makes clicking sounds. Translated into Russian, crack means crack.
The history of the origin of the substance
Although cocaine has been known for over 3,000 years, crack is a fairly young drug. It appeared in the 70s of the last century, but became widespread only after a dozen years. Cocaine has always been considered a drug for the elite and rich people. It costs quite a lot. Its smoking variety, on the contrary, is cheap. Even a teenager can try crack. For one dose, he will definitely have enough money.
Drug dealers have always been looking for a way to find a drug that would be affordable for any drug addict. In addition, they were interested in a drug that causes rapid addiction.
By chance it was noticed that a solution of harmless soda is able to bind cocaine salts in such a way that the powder crystallizes and becomes solid. After drying, it can be smoked. And so crack was born.
At first it was distributed in the United States, then it came to Europe and Russia.
Effects of crack on the body
Crack is more powerful than cocaine. The fact is that this remedy is purified by 75%, and often by 100%, therefore it has a powerful effect on the body. In addition, when a person smokes, the narcotic substance enters the brain faster. Often, the addict experiences an almost instantaneous high, which is characterized by increased intensity. However, this state does not last long - about 15 minutes, and then there is a need to smoke another dose. This is how addiction sets in. The scary thing is that a person gets used to crack literally after the first time.
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Symptoms of crack use
Pipes with this drug are usually short, as the smoke quickly loses its toxic properties. This leads to the phenomenon of "crack lips". That is, due to the fact that the addict presses a hot tube to his lips, cracks and blisters appear on them. Here is one of the signs by which you can identify a drug addict.
Other indicators include:
- depression.
- Panic.
- Convulsions.
- Dilated pupils.
- Nausea.
- Rapid breathing.
- Loss of appetite.
No matter how often crack addicts smoke, they are at risk. Such people are prone to disease, among them cases of heart attack and stroke are not uncommon, they are defenseless against infections, since immunity has been lost. In addition, they have breathing problems. For example, shortness of breath, cough. Smoke affects the lungs, kidneys, liver, destroys teeth.
Psychological changes are also taking place. A crack addict can be recognized by mood swings, irritability. Often he falls into apathy, cannot navigate in a familiar environment.
Crack addiction treatment is a rather complicated and lengthy process, but recovery is possible.
How the brain behaves under crack
Drugs are very expensive. Not everyone can afford to be a cocaine addict, this drug is predominantly used by rich people. But even here, drug dealers, greedy for profit from human weaknesses, came up with a way out - to sell expensive drugs not in the form of a powder for inhalation, but in a cheaper form available to every teenager. This drug is called crack.
What is crack?
Crack, indeed, is one of the varieties of cocaine, but there are a lot of differences between these two substances:
- crack is considered more refined than cocaine;
- method of use;
- euphoria lasts for minutes, while cocaine high lasts for hours;
- more severe addiction.
For the first time, crack became known in the 80s of the last century, this drug came from the United States, and soon it became widespread throughout the world, especially among the not very wealthy segments of the population.
The name of the drug also comes from the English word "crack", which means crack, click. And in fact, when burned, the plates of a narcotic substance emit a characteristic crackle.
Crack is produced by evaporating a mixture of cocaine and regular soda. To prepare this substance, drug addicts do not need to make any effort - the drug is sold in the form of small crystalline plates, which are broken into small pieces and set on fire. The addiction to crack is quite heavy, so the addicts themselves call this drug hard or iron because of the power of its effect on the psyche.
The way crack is consumed is by smoking. Crack is considered a fairly cheap drug, the lowest strata of the population can afford to smoke it, while the effect of the drug is instant and very strong.
Photo of the drug Krek
Mechanism of action
Smoking enhances the effect of any narcotic substance hundreds of times. As for crack, its impact on the body increases hundreds of times due to the high degree of purification of the drug. That is why crack is sold in small pieces. When using crack, the “arrival” occurs almost instantly - the lungs absorb the drug with their entire surface and carry it to the brain. There is an activation of dopamine receptors, which leads to a strong buzz and euphoria.
This effect lasts for about 20 minutes, after which the addict begins to experience a state of breakdown, he is visited by depressive thoughts, there is a strong need to smoke again in order to get a new wave of pleasure.
Dependence on crack occurs almost from the first puff, because the state experienced by a drug addict is so acutely magnificent that the desire to feel the whole range of emotions again sometimes leads to an endless and uncontrollable dope.
The mechanism of action of the drug Krek:
Trip
Conventionally, the "arrival" can be divided into several stages:
- euphoria - a sharp rise in mood. The world is seen in iridescent colors, everything that happens around the drug addict delights, he is happy to talk about his emotions;
- a surge of energy - it seems to the person who has taken the dose that his body can soar above the ground, physical activity increases, the addict feels that he is capable of doing a thousand different things;
- activation of mental activity - in a state of intoxication, the patient has the impression that he is able to memorize long texts, perceive serious technical information. True, at the end of the drug effect, all the facts recorded in the brain turn out to be completely forgotten and are remembered only when smoking another crack record;
- self-confidence - being under the influence of a drug, a person is so confident in his actions that there can be no talk of any criticism in his address. Such a position is very reminiscent of megalomania;
- sharpening of perception. Crack has the ability to repeatedly enhance sensory perception, it seems to the addict that the world around him has never been so bright, small details so distinct, and music so harmonious. Increased tactile sensitivity can lead to a feeling of crawling insects, goosebumps, human touches become unpleasant. Under the influence of crack, drug addicts often experience hallucinations, they may see various objects and people that do not actually exist;
- insomnia;
- abrupt change of mood.
Development of addiction
Addiction develops almost instantly. Mental dependence occurs after the first puff - the pleasure of smoking a drug is so great that it is very difficult to refuse such a powerful effect.
Physical dependence consists not only in the weakening of pleasure receptors, which, without external influence, no longer produce dopamine, but also in the fact that after prolonged use, addicts cannot experience the spectrum of emotions that arose earlier. The race for a high, the transience of euphoria and heavy - all these are indicators of the formation of severe dependence on smoking crack. Experts believe that about 80% of drug addicts who have tried crack for the first time immediately fall into its trap and the meaning of their life is to buy and take the next dose of the substance.
As is the case with many, smoking crack leads to serious consequences not only for the general well-being, but also for the social life of the addict - he stops enjoying life, family and work, loses ties with family and friends, is not interested in anything other than using psychostimulants.
Consequences of smoking
The sensations that crack causes cannot be obtained in real life. That is why crack addicts go to any length of crime to get the desired effect. In addition, the high state is followed by a protracted and deep depression, from which only the next puff will help to get out. Being in such a state, a drug addict is capable of anything - the sale of their own children, the murder of relatives, and even suicide.
Short term
The life of dependent people is never cloudless, getting money for a drug is the only thing that can interest them at any moment.
Despite the feeling of pleasure that certainly comes with use, a drug addict can also be overcome by rather unpleasant manifestations:
- coughing;
- sore throat;
- inability to breathe;
- chest pain;
- increased pressure due to constriction of blood vessels;
- insomnia.
Some time after the development of addiction, the addict begins to suffer from serious physical ailments - lung diseases develop, the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke increases sharply due to severe deterioration of blood vessels, the inability to sleep and relax leads to anger and aggression, and lack of appetite leads to physical exhaustion .
Sometimes in the manufacture of crack, not the usual safe sodium bicarbonate is used, but more toxic substances that, when burned, cause severe asthmatic attacks, the addict begins to suffocate. In addition, those who smoke the drug often suffer from hot, scalding smoke - the pipe for smoking crack is very short, and in order not to miss a drop of the precious high, the addict presses it tightly to his lips, which leads to non-healing blisters and burns on the surface of the lips. And even this does not stop drug addicts from wanting to take the drug, which gradually worsens their health even more.
Long term
The use of crack for a rather long period of time greatly affects the psyche of the addict - hallucinations, which often occur when smoking, may not let the patient go and after the end of the drug, the addict ceases to navigate the situation, a psychotic state develops, often leading to the call of the surrounding psychiatric brigade.
The constant use of a toxic substance cannot but affect physical health - the addict's immune defenses are greatly reduced, he begins to constantly “catch” various diseases, a harmless SARS often turns into pneumonia due to serious problems with the respiratory system. In addition, the liver and kidneys are severely affected by prolonged exposure to the drug, teeth are destroyed, drug addicts suffer from hypertension, sudden changes in blood pressure and epileptic seizures.
It is impossible not to mention severe depression, which can only be eliminated by using a new dose of crack. Getting out of this hell on your own is almost impossible, and few people manage to live long with addiction to crack. Constant smoking of the drug in order to somehow improve their well-being leads patients to death within a month.
It is very difficult to recover from drug addiction, many feel cravings for taking drugs for years. Therefore, it is easier to say “No” once to those who offer to feel an unreal high than to pay for dubious pleasure with your health or life.
Consequences of using crack:
(from A. Danilin's book "Cocaine. Pervitin" M., 2000)
What is cocaine?
It is a white fine crystalline powder (somewhat reminiscent of pure snow), obtained by extraction from the leaves of the Eryhoxylum coca plant or simply from coca leaves. Coca leaves are the most ancient potent psychic stimulant known to mankind.
From coca leaves, which are processed with kerosene and frayed, a paste is obtained. When hydrochloric acid is added to this paste, a salt is obtained - cocaine hydrochloride (cocaine HCL). This salt is sold on the streets.
Cocaine salt dissolves easily in water, so drug addicts not only sniff it, but, with an increase in addiction, inject it with a syringe into the veins or simply eat it.
However, since when cocaine is inhaled through the nasal mucosa, a rather pronounced specific intoxication occurs, it is the inhalation of cocaine through the nose (sometimes simply from the back of the hand, sometimes with the help of the most exquisite tubes, banknotes rolled into a tube, etc.) remains the most popular way to take cocaine.
We want to note right away that, unlike heroin inhalation, this way of taking cocaine does not exclude either fatal overdoses or specific psychoses associated with delusions of persecution and aggression.
Just like in the case of heroin, various impurities most often contaminate the salt of cocaine. Traders most often add various sugars (lactose, mannitol) to cocaine. Local anesthetic drugs such as lidocaine are often added. The addition of such drugs allows customers to feel the numbness or freezing of the mucous membranes, which, thanks to the legends of drug dealers, many addicts consider the action of "pure cocaine".
Cheaper stimulants such as caffeine or the same amphetamines are added to the powder, luminal and other tranquilizers are added ...
The American police report that pure cocaine salt in powders that can be seized on the streets of America contains from 10 to 40%. Moreover, the powder containing 40% of cocaine can be seized only in wealthy areas - mainly in the places of residence of the sports and artistic elite. In the streets of poor and middle-sized areas, the content of cocaine in the sold powder never exceeds 10%.
Please note that this is US data.
Now imagine what a crazy chemical mixture the addict gets instead of cocaine when it passes through the hands. domestic"huckster".
crack
Psychologists joke gloomily that a person is “such an animal, who doesn't learn from their mistakes».
In the mid-70s, the attitude towards cocaine as a completely harmless substance was again formed. Books and articles reappeared claiming that cocaine was not addictive. Some politicians began to openly advocate the legal sale of cocaine. It began to be described as a "natural", "easy" drug.
However, cocaine was expensive. He was in vogue among the bohemian and semi-bohemian elite: Hollywood movie stars, famous professional athletes and their entourage. In this environment, it was and remains fashionable to “dabble” in cocaine. It is well known that such different people as, for example, Marilyn Monroe and Vladimir Vysotsky, have experienced cocaine addiction.
However, the use of cocaine only by the rich sections of society did not suit the Colombian and American drug lords. For their even greater enrichment, it was necessary to find a way to make cocaine more of a "mass commodity", and for this it was necessary, firstly, to become significantly cheaper, and secondly, so that a person's mental dependence on it would increase dramatically.
The drug cartels managed to “solve” both of these issues in the mid-80s, when a new form of “crack” cocaine appeared on the streets of America and Europe - cocaine.
Until the mid-1980s, it was customary to sniff cocaine. That is, the main route of its entry into the body was through the nasal mucosa. But since the inhalation of the drug sharply constricts the blood vessels of the nasal mucosa, the absorption of cocaine into the blood is slow. Cocaine sniffers can develop stimulant psychoses and even fatal overdoses, but this happens relatively rarely.
Much faster cocaine is absorbed through the lungs during smoking. But when ignited due to high temperature, the cocaine salt is almost instantly destroyed, so the pleasant sensations of intoxication when smoking ordinary cocaine are very short, light and instantly give way to "brittle".
In order for cocaine to become smokeable, it was necessary to isolate the cocaine base from the composition of the cocaine salt. Many experiments of drug addicts in this area were unsuccessful. They, for example, tried to mix cocaine with flammable ether and received fatal burns when they tried to smoke this mixture.
Around 1985-86, a safe way to turn cocaine into a substance that can be smoked was "finally" discovered - cocaine was mixed with a completely banal food alkaline solution and water. The resulting solution was dried or evaporated. As a result of this process, fragile, petal-like plates are formed, which are broken into small pieces and smoked.
Cocaine processed in this way received the formidable name "crack". This word comes from the English "crack" - "crack", since when this substance burns, a characteristic crackle is clearly audible.
When smoking "Krek" - cocaine, cocaine is absorbed by the entire huge surface of the blood vessels of the lungs. Once in the blood of the lungs, cocaine penetrates into the human brain several times faster than when inhaled through the nose. The joyful upsurge of mood and the whole complex of pleasant sensations of intoxication (“coming”) comes on so quickly and strongly that many of our patients consider these sensations even more pleasant than intravenous administration of the same cocaine.
The period of "high" (intoxication) is usually very short. On average, after 20-30 minutes, there is a need to smoke the next dose. The rate of occurrence of psychic dependence when smoking crack is higher than even when cocaine is administered intravenously.
Crack proved to be a safe substance to manufacture. Dilution of salt with subsequent evaporation increased the volume of production, and consequently, the cost of cocaine when sold in the form of crack decreased several times.
In addition, the strength of the drug increased, which allowed traffickers to sell crack in small portions. Each such serving was relatively inexpensive (on average in America in the mid-80s, one serving cost about $ 15). Such prices made crack - cocaine available to all segments of the population, first in America and then in Europe.
Thus began the second cocaine epidemic, the end of which is not in sight to this day. The rate at which crack causes psychic addiction is such that, in its malignancy, the second cocaine epidemic cannot be compared to the first of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The first information about crack appeared in the press in November 1985, and in February 1986 the US media spoke of crack as the country's main national disaster. By 1991, official statistics showed that about 4 million Americans, about a million Frenchmen, and up to one and a half million Japanese use crack. According to American statistics, in 1970 there were no ambulance calls due to a cocaine overdose at all. In 1990, there were about 80,000 such cases.
But even this was not the main problem of the "epidemic" of crack. The word "crack" around the world is synonymous with crime and violence. Crack and violence have become inextricably linked.
On the one hand, it is the crime associated with the trade and distribution of cocaine. Giant criminal organizations that call themselves cartels are constantly fighting for control of crack markets. In 1992, only during the "cocaine showdown" between groups in America, 4,000 people died.
The annual income of the largest Colombian cartel "Kali" (it is interesting to note the coincidence of the name of the cartel with the name of the most terrible goddess of the pantheon of ancient India - the goddess of death Kali) is estimated at 400 million dollars. And the total annual income of organized crime from the crack trade in the United States was estimated by South magazine in 1996 at $600,000,000,000.
On the other hand, this crime is associated with people who smoke crack. Crack destroys personality rapidly. For the sake of obtaining crack or money to buy it, people go to any lengths, including murder, selling their own children and child prostitution.
The so-called "crack houses" - places where crack is sold and smoked - have become breeding grounds for crime and AIDS. Sexual "services" as a form of payment for various psychostimulants, primarily crack, have become something of a "norm" among drug addicts.
We present the story of a crack addict based on the book Drugs and Society (Moscow, 1998):
“I saw things in crack houses that I didn’t see anywhere else. You can't imagine a worse place. Nobody cares, do what you want. What have I not seen! I've seen a girl who ___________ fifty times until she was covered in blood and couldn't even stand up, and that's for a little piece of crack. I saw one guy throw acid in a woman's face just because she didn't want to sleep with him anymore. I saw a junkie get his balls shot with a shotgun for trying to steal some crack. Look, boy, these are bad places…”
"Cheap snow" - crack has not yet reached our country. Today we are dealing only with the beginning of the cocaine epidemic.
The "expensive" and "safe" Colombian cocaine is slowly making its way to us through the creative and financial elite of society. Today in Russia one gram of such cocaine costs about 300 dollars.
But more “cheap” versions of it are already appearing, costing from $100 to $250 per gram in various regions of the country. Our reader has probably already understood that drugs do not become cheaper “by themselves”; a decrease in their cost is always associated with their dilution with foreign substances.
The next step for drug traffickers should be the appearance on the streets of "cheap" - "folk" crack. Maybe together we can prevent the crack epidemic after the heroin epidemic we are experiencing now and killing everything in its path?
How cocaine affects the human psyche or the acute effects of its action.
The state of intoxication with various psychostimulants differs very little from each other, as you will see below. Cocaine was simply the first drug of this group encountered by European civilization. Therefore, most of the effects that occur with a single dose of psychostimulants were described precisely on the example of cocaine.
Everything that is written in this chapter will, to one degree or another, apply to all psychostimulants described in the following chapters of our book.
Doctors distinguish the following aspects of cocaine intoxication:
Euphoria- Sudden and acute elevation of mood. Feeling the joy of existence, novelty and festivity of the surrounding world. The person becomes more sociable and talkative. He easily and "excitedly" tells others any details of his life.
Feeling of energy- the body seems light, the ability to act, to perform actions is not limited. A person is seized by a feeling of cheerfulness, unlimited physical capabilities, the desire to sleep disappears.
However, this feeling is apparent. As experiments have shown, under the influence of cocaine, coordination of movements and their accuracy are sharply reduced. Most of the actions committed during cocaine intoxication later turn out to be erroneous, which brought a lot of trouble.
Increased mental alertness. It seems to a person that his mental abilities are not limited. He believes that he perceives any information much easier than usual. The ability to remember seems to him unlimited.
True, when the period of intoxication passes, it quickly becomes clear that all the knowledge acquired by a person has disappeared somewhere. In order to remember them, you need to take the drug again.
By the way, this is a general rule, to which we will return more than once: the information obtained in the process of using a drug can be remembered in full only after taking the same drug.
This feature of memory is one of the "traps" for any drug addict. Instead of one person and one memory, two people and two memories are formed, as it were.
One of them is under the influence of the drug, and the other is without it. It is almost impossible to restore life experience and information obtained during intoxication while sober (this is one of the reasons why doctors do not like to communicate with drug addicts who are in a state of intoxication - this is pointless).
In addition, statistics show that any stimulants over time, due to the depletion of the reserves of the nerve cell, gradually impair the ability to remember in any person.
Despite the subjective feeling of clarity in the head, a person while intoxicated with cocaine and any other psychostimulants complex logical or analytical problems are not capable of solving at all.
Sherlock Holmes was known to snort cocaine only during periods of forced idleness, but never used the drug while conducting investigations.
The already mentioned book "Drugs and Society" cites the case of William Halstead, who made a lot of discoveries in the field of medical anesthesia and surgery. When, after reading Freud's book, he began to study the analgesic properties of cocaine on himself, he became the first American to become addicted to this drug. While using the drug, he published an article in the New York Medical Journal that began:
“Despite the fact that it can be explained in different ways, albeit in confusion about possible misunderstandings about what follows from why modern hospitals, and many, moreover, with a certain and at the same time indefinite distrust, have expressed almost no interest in such a matter as local anaesthesia, and with complete certainty I do not think, under the circumstances, that it is worth trying to defend the undefended reputation of surgery instead of trying to win all sorts of other people to my side, and this prompted me a few months ago to write to this the subject of most of what seemed to be a partially exhaustive article which ill health prevented me from completing...”
As you can see, the doctor failed to write a coherent article under the influence of cocaine.
Attempts at such "creativity" under the influence of cocaine are more likely to arise under the influence of the next mandatory component of cocaine intoxication.
Increased self-confidence- a person in a state of cocaine intoxication is absolutely confident in himself. This means that for the period of action of the drug he ceases to have doubts about the correctness of his actions. It seems to him that everything he does, says or writes is correct and the only true one.
At the time of writing the above excerpt from the article, it certainly seemed to Dr. Halsted that his thoughts were presented perfectly.
A person in this state, having started some action, as a rule, does not bring it to the end, since he believes that the efforts already made are enough.
One of our patients, after a friendly party with cocaine, put greasy plates in the dryer and washed them lightly with cold water. She herself believed that she washed the dishes perfectly. She was surprised to find the remaining dirty dishes in the dish dryer only the next day.
If the reader thinks, he will understand that such a state is very close to delirium - delirium of his own greatness, in which a person is also absolutely not critical of his own actions statements. A person during an attack of delirium will also be convinced that his actions and opinions are absolutely correct.
And cocaine intoxication really often ends in an attack of delirium, megalomania or persecution. We will talk more about this in the chapter on pervitin.
Enhancement of sensory perception. Due to the direct stimulating effect of the drug, the sensitivity of all the sense organs of the human body is aggravated. It seems that vision is sharpening, a person begins to see small details of environmental objects that he did not notice before, and they seem extremely interesting to him. The saturation of the world with colors intensifies, and from gray and familiar it becomes bright and festive. At the same time, since the sensitivity of vision is at the very limit of possibilities, a person, as it were, is removed from emotional participation in what he sees. From a participant in events, he turns into a spectator, observing the world as if on the screen of a stereoscopic cinema.
The rumor gets worse. Sharp and inharmonious sounds irritate, “hit the ears”, but harmonious sounds, for example, music or bell ringing, acquire deeper shades, begin to sound as if inside the head, as one of our patients said, as if the head is “inside the column”
The sensitivity of the skin increases. Sometimes such an increase in sensitivity comes to the sensation of skin hallucinations - goosebumps and "worms crawling" under the skin. The touch of surrounding people is most often unpleasant, they seem too sharp.
Due to the fact that touching the skin is more unpleasant than pleasant, most cocaine addicts prefer not to have sex while drunk. Although in some people such a sharp increase in the sensitivity of the skin does not occur, and then erotic sensations during cocaine intoxication become especially pleasant.
The extreme sharpening of the sensitivity of the sense organs carries the threat of hallucinations. Perception can be sharpened to such an extent that "perception without perception" occurs. The sense organs will begin to feel something that is not really there. Illusions come first deceptions perception. A person takes an unfamiliar person for an acquaintance, a toothbrush for a knife, etc.
And then there are real hallucinations, when knives and killers begin to appear where they do not exist at all. This is how cocaine psychosis occurs.
Decreased need for sleep- emotional upsurge and a feeling of cheerfulness leads a person to a state of persistent insomnia. Sleep becomes unnecessary for a while.
increased anxiety. Despite the properties of intoxication described above, a person in this state is extremely easily excitable. An elevated, blissful background of mood can, almost instantly, be replaced by irritability and aggression, if the cocaine addict did not like something in the actions of others.
Drug addicts say that “it’s better not to touch a high cocaine addict.” An addict can give an absolutely unexpected aggressive reaction to the most common words and questions addressed to him. He seems to always balance on the verge between joy and suspicion.
The need to repeat the first experience of intoxication.
It is important to understand that a person can get the full “gamut” of pleasure only at the first taking cocaine. One of the main mechanisms for the emergence of mental dependence on it is that a person strives to achieve initial state of intoxication, the initial severity of euphoria, but his brain is capable of this only one once.
cocaine addiction
The need to repeat the effect of the first dose is first psychological factor in the formation of mental dependence on cocaine and other psychostimulants, the first, but far from the only one.
The second most important factor what causes a person to repeat taking cocaine again and again is the very short duration of the period of intoxication (“high”). Intoxication breaks off suddenly and turns into its opposite - into an extremely unpleasant and painful state of mind.
When taking a small and moderate dose of cocaine (15-60 mg; the usual "track", which you can, for example, buy in restaurants in Amsterdam contains 16-20 mg of cocaine), the period of intoxication is extremely short. When such a dose is inhaled through the nose, the duration of the "effect" is about 1 hour. When smoking "crack" or intravenously injecting cocaine, intoxication is even shorter - it lasts no more than 20 minutes.
Straightaway after the end of this time, quickly and suddenly for the addict himself comes "retribution", which is expressed, as it were, in inside out(inversions) of the symptoms of the previous "high":
elevated mood is replaced by sudden depression and depression, which, according to one of the cocaine addicts, “suddenly falls like a heavy stone on the chest.”
Feeling of energy gives way to apathy and feeling of heaviness in every cell of the body.
Feeling of increased mental alertness and clarity in the head is replaced by a feeling of difficulty and reluctance to think. Thoughts flow slowly and incoherently. It becomes very difficult to concentrate on any action: it is difficult to get the feet to step correctly, it is difficult to get the throat to pronounce the words correctly.
Increased self-confidence is replaced depressed with guilt. One of our cocaine addicts said: “You feel like you are a mistake of nature, you feel like a pimple on her healthy body.”
Hypersensitivity gives way to apathetic painful insensitivity. The outside world becomes absolutely gray and colorless, sometimes it seems disgustingly ugly. Sounds come from a bottomless well. Music seems to be a disgusting and meaningless set of sounds. Your own body seems clumsy and disgusting. In the words of the same patient, “you feel like an elephant in a china shop.”
This state lasts much longer than the period of intoxication. Such a "wrong side" can last up to 12 hours (!).
Against this background, of all the acute effects of cocaine, only insomnia persists. Falling asleep in order to forget is practically impossible at this time.
What was during intoxication increased anxiety at the end of the drug turns into unceasing anxiety with morbid suspicion, irritability and anger with or without reason. This irritability is essentially a manifestation of roadside brain activity.
Throughout this period, only one thought remains clear in a person’s head: “I need to sniff another cocaine in order to return to my normal state.” The desire to take the drug fills the entire consciousness.
But even if a person does this, he cannot completely return to his previous state. After any repeated use of a psychostimulant, the state seems to be worse than the previous intoxication. The addict begins to sniff more and more in pursuit of the desired effect, constantly increasing the dose. Drug addicts themselves call this state of "catching up."
It is interesting to note that the breakdown products of both cocaine and pervitin and amphetamines remain in the blood and urine for about two to three days from the moment the drug is taken. And all the effects of cocaine with any method of taking it last only 20-60 minutes. This means that when a person takes drugs repeatedly, their total amount in the body increases. The body simply does not have time to remove the previous dose. It is the slow elimination of cocaine from the body that is the cause of not only the development of dependence, but also the huge number of deaths associated with an overdose of the drug.
The third factor Forming addiction is the group use of the drug.
The vast majority of cases of addiction development are associated with the use of cocaine by large companies. In American literature, the term "cocaine revelry" is even accepted. The fact is that the participants in such a party provoke each other to continue taking drugs. Mutual induction takes place within a drunken company (see the chapter “Drug Anticipation”). Group use of cocaine sharply increases both the intoxication itself and the unpleasant state after it.
As a result, while almost unconscious, cocaine addicts take the drug almost every 10-30 minutes. Such a joint immersion in "cocaine revelry" can last from 4 hours to a day, depending on the availability of the drug for the company.
After such a party, cocaine depression seems especially hard, as it is accompanied by a painful feeling of loneliness and abandonment.
As a result, the pathological attraction to the drug after group use is much stronger than after using the drug alone. Addicts begin to crave for such parties, all their thoughts are concentrated on cocaine and only cocaine.
As a result, the "revels" begin to turn into one another and last for weeks until violence occurs in the company or the death of one or more party members as a result of a drug overdose.
This is how cocaine addiction is formed..
In general, everything described above remains valid not only for cocaine, but, as we will see, for any other psychostimulants.
After some time, the three psychological factors are joined by fourth, physical
- develops cocaine withdrawal syndrome.
cocaine withdrawal syndrome.
Withdrawal syndrome (or abstinence) syndrome is a long period of a person's painful condition associated with the complete cessation of taking any psychoactive substance.
In domestic narcological literature, one can often read that psychostimulants do not cause physical dependence. Addiction to cocaine and pervitin is described as a purely mental addiction.
We do not entirely agree with this statement. Another conversation is that the physical component of the psychostimulant withdrawal syndrome is much less pronounced than that of heroin and other drugs, opium derivatives.
Both the central and peripheral nervous systems of the body get used to functioning under conditions of “high tension”. With the abrupt cessation of drug use, the “tension” caused by an excess amount of norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine suddenly “drops”.
Such a “drop” in tension causes a specific “breakdown,” in the formation of which both the central and peripheral nervous systems are involved. If the sympathetic-adrenal trunk of the autonomic nervous system suffers when the drug is withdrawn, the physical component of the dependence is necessarily manifested. We will talk in detail about the chemical effect of cocaine and psychostimulants on the human body below.
It is characteristic that our patients - pervitin and cocaine addicts use the same word - "withdrawal" to describe the first phase of the withdrawal syndrome, as people who abuse heroin and other opiates.
Even at first glance, it is clear that such a withdrawal syndrome contains both mental and physical components. Although the mental components - the components of depression undoubtedly prevail over the physical ones.
In general, the concepts of "mental" and "physical" when discussing the work of an integral human organism are always relative concepts.
Let's leave this question to the experts. We can only say one thing - the psychostimulant withdrawal syndrome is an extremely serious condition and reassure ourselves that cocaine and pervitin, allegedly, do not cause physical dependence in drug addicts for no reason.
European and American studies of patients treated for cocaine addiction show that addiction syndromes appear in them within 2-3 years after the first experiments with cocaine.
The slow development of addiction to cocaine led a number of researchers, especially in the 60s and 70s, to write that cocaine does not cause addiction at all.
However, the crack epidemic has forced medicine to look at things differently. In fact, 80% of crack smokers and 100% of people who have at least once tried intravenous cocaine turn into drug addicts.
The situation is somewhat different among people who inhale cocaine through their noses. It is believed that only 15% of people who first try cocaine in this way become addicts.
Interestingly, the American Drug Enforcement Association has conducted research on the reasons cocaine sniffer stops taking it.
The main reason for discontinuation was the fear of losing control of oneself. The same fear that seems to be completely absent in our teenagers. If no one taught a young man why and how a man should control himself, our drug addicts have nothing to lose...
Our children are not afraid to lose control of themselves - they just do not know what it is ...
Patients cited the high cost, low availability of the drug, and the anxiety and anxiety it causes as other reasons.
The withdrawal syndrome after prolonged use of cocaine proceeds as if in cycles or phases:
The first phase - the state after the "cocaine session": The first 5-6 days after drug withdrawal are rightly called "withdrawal" by the patients themselves.
Moreover, the first three days of this six-day period pass in a state of excitement, and the next three days in a state of inhibition.
For the first three days, the addict does not sleep and hardly eats. He rushes about the apartment, he is annoyed by every sound, every word addressed to him. He does not tolerate bright light. As a rule, people in this state try to hide, lock themselves in an apartment, turn off their phones, and close the windows tightly.
Body temperature and blood pressure rise these days. Our patients complain that the thoughts in the head are “mixed up”, it is impossible to distinguish day from night. A person in this period is not able to think about anything but cocaine.
The next three days, irritability and insomnia are replaced by depression with a sense of guilt. Craving for cocaine is slightly weakening. The person feels internally empty. His strength is leaving him. Most often, from weakness, he is unable to get out of bed. For the first time in recent days, a person has a desire to sleep, but he cannot sleep.
Insomnia disappears only on 4-5 days of cocaine withdrawal and is replaced by continuous drowsiness against the background of apathy, unwillingness to do anything and move. For about two days, a person sleeps almost all the time.
Around the 6th day, the “withdrawal” ends, sleep becomes normal, health improves, and the desire to take cocaine becomes not strong and distant. There is a feeling of weakness and weakness.
2nd phase: After “breakdowns”, the “cocaine boredom” phase develops. It lasts from 7 days to 2-3 months, depending on the length of service and the method of taking drugs. Usually, during this period, patients complain that despite improvement well-being, they ceased to enjoy anything. They eat, but do not feel the pleasure of eating. They watch TV, talk to people, have sex... but they don't experience joy and pleasure.
Everything that happens around leaves them indifferent. Some addicts describe their experience during this time as "clockwork toys" or "robots roaming aimlessly."
The period of painful indifference after 2-5 days is even more aggravated by recurring bouts of depression, irritability and anxiety for several hours. During these attacks, memories of cocaine come back with renewed vigor. Very often, these bouts of cravings lead to a “breakdown” and resumption of cocaine use.
In the event that a person does not repeat the use of cocaine, then the “cocaine boredom” phase will end in about 2 months.
3rd phase - The phase of attenuation of the pathological attraction to the drug. Somewhere within the 3rd month after the abolition of cocaine, a person's mental reactions to the outside world normalize, behavior levels out, sleep and appetite return to normal.
However, within a year after the withdrawal of the drug, periodically there are bouts of craving for cocaine, accompanied by anxiety and irritability. And only by the end of the first year of withdrawal, the intensity of such attacks gradually fades.
The intensity of the withdrawal syndrome, just like the threat of an overdose, naturally depends on the route of administration of drugs into the human body. Cocaine is the least dangerous when it enters the blood slowly and in small doses. So cocaine enters the body only when chewing coca leaves or inhaling the drug through the nose. In this case, withdrawal symptoms are most often minimal.
Cocaine, which is administered intravenously, develops dependence on the self almost immediately after the first injection. .Most of these drug addicts, within six months, either increase their dose before the onset of serious somatic or mental illness, or do not even live this period and quickly die from an overdose.
The worst addiction to cocaine occurs while smoking crack. The fact is that a very short period of intoxication, almost 10 minutes after smoking the next dose, is followed by psychosis - a sharply advancing depression with suspicion and delirium.
The addict-smoker needs to take an even larger dose of the substance in order to prevent the development of such a condition. If the drug is available, smoking crack can lead a person to a psychiatric hospital or the next world, in almost a month.
Other names for coca, coconut, coke, Xi, Tse, candy, nose, dust, white lady, whistle.
- Cocaine is an extract from the leaves of the South American plant Erythroxylum Coca.
Cocaine belongs to the psychomotor group. It starts to work almost instantly - immediately after the powder gets on the nasal mucosa, there comes a "coming" - a flash of buzz. There is a sharp increase in motor activity, the brain "faster" thinks, there is a general rise in mental and physical strength.
- The effect is felt for a short time - 10..15 minutes, and then depression sets in, which lasts about 30-40 minutes.
The dosage depends on the duration of consumption. "Starting" dose - two "tracks".
Effect Duration
The effect of cocaine, if inhaled through the nose, lasts only 20-40 minutes. This is one of the main reasons for the addiction to cocaine. As the effects wear off, often people sniff one more lane, then another, and another... This can continue until the person runs out of powder. This way of constant use can quickly become psychologically addictive. A puff of crack will produce effects for 5-15 minutes.
Story
3000 years ago - the natives of South America chewed coca leaves, believing that it was a gift from God.
15th century - Incas in Peru cultivate coca on numerous plantations.
1505 - The first handwritten recipes for the use of coca were brought to Europe by Amerigo Vespucci and Nicholas Monardes (1565).
At the beginning of the 15th century, the coca plantations belonging to the Incas were captured by the Spanish colonizers. Spanish tax laws have been revised to allow landowners to pay taxes in coca leaves. 1539 Bishop Cuzco established church tithing in coca leaves.
The middle of the 15th century - after the destruction of the Inca Empire (1553), the production of coca leaf begins in Peru, which leads to a glut of the market and a decrease in the price of coca.
1575 - In the Spanish silver mines, coca leaves were widely used among forced laborers.
1580 Europe. Monardes brought coca leaves to Europe, however, unlike tobacco, coca does not attract much interest, due to the loss of the euphoric effect of the leaves due to long transportation.
1662 - Abraham Cowley creates the poem "The Legend of Coke". This is the first independent mention of coca in English literature.
1708 - coca is described by the German physician and botanist Hermann Boerhav.
1835 - The first accurate drawing of coca appears in a popular English edition. The illustration was created by Sir William Hooker.
1850 - Coca is used in throat surgery.
1855 Cocaine was first obtained from coca leaves.
1862 - "Merck" produces 100 g of cocaine.
1863 - Angelo Mariani patents a recipe for making a Bordeaux wine named Vin Mariani with coca content.
1870 - Wine Mariani - sold throughout France, containing 6 mg of cocaine per ounce of wine. The exported Mariani Wine contains 7.2 mg per ounce.
1883 - Merck produces 300g of cocaine.
1883 - German physician Theodor Aschenbrandt recommends the use of cocaine in the army to increase the stamina of soldiers.
1884 - Cocaine is used for local anesthesia in medicine.
1884 - Sigmund Freud believes that cocaine is effective in treating morphine addiction.
1884 - Merck produces 3.179 pounds of cocaine.
1886 - Merck produces 158,352 pounds of cocaine.
1886 - John Pemberton creates a Coca-Cola recipe containing coca syrup and caffeine.
1901 - Coca-Cola removes cocaine from its drink recipe.
1905 - Snorting cocaine becomes popular.
1910 - the first cases of diseases of the nasal cavity due to sniffing cocaine are described.
1914 - The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act regulates the distribution of narcotics, including cocaine.
In the early 1930s - Japan is the leading producer of cocaine (23.3%), the United States (21.3%), Germany (15%), Great Britain (9.9%), France (8.3%). 1920 -1970 Cocaine use in America declines.
October 27, 1970 Narcotics are graded according to their effects, dangers... In the first list are psilocybin, psilocin, mescaline, peyote, hashish, and MDA. Schedule 2 - cocaine and methamphetamines... Schedule 3 - amphetamines, various stimulants...
1976 - crack is synthesized from cocaine (in California). He becomes very popular in Hollywood.
1981 - cost of 1 kg of cocaine - $55,000.
1984 - the cost of cocaine 1 kg - $ 25,000.
Mid-1980s crack is worldwide and popular.
Cocaine production
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Women and children collect the sheet in ordinary bags; the whole family, having worked from dawn to dusk, each collects 25 kg of raw leaf. After drying in the sun, this weight is reduced to ten kg. Dried leaves are treated with an alkaline solution of lime or potash, as a result of which 14 alkaloids are released from the leaf. One of them is cocaine.
The next day, the leaf is soaked in vats of kerosene. When the alkaloids are dissolved in kerosene, the already dead leaf is taken out, and a solution of sulfuric acid is added to the vats. Acid, combined with alkaloids, forms several salts, one of which is cocaine sulfate. The kerosene is then pumped out and the alkaline solution is added again to neutralize the acid. A viscous grayish substance settles at the bottom of the vat - this is coca paste.
A thousand kilograms of a fresh leaf yields only ten kilograms of paste. Paste manufacturers usually send it to Colombians, who refine it further and turn the paste into pure cocaine base. Moreover, from two and a half kg of paste, one kg of this base is obtained.
Cocaine base can be smoked but not inhaled. To obtain cocaine powder suitable for inhalation, the base is dissolved in ether with the addition of hydrochloric acid and acetone, then filtered, dried and cocaine hydrochloride is obtained.
It takes 17 liters of ether to produce one kilogram of cocaine. It is not pure cocaine itself that brings more harm to the body, but precisely the rubbish with which it is extracted from coca leaves.
Usually cocaine is sniffed, but intravenous injection enthusiasts are also not uncommon. With injections, everything is quite trivial - preparing a solution, which is then carefully selected with a syringe and injected intravenously, but lovers of "sniff" (from English to sniff - sniff) follow a rather complicated ritual: cocaine is poured onto some flat surface (for example, a mirror ) and with the help of a razor blade, possible lumps are reduced, then with the same razor the already crushed powder is "stretched" into long (5-10 cm) and very narrow (thinner than 1 mm.) "tracks". From a clean yet crisp banknote (it is considered good form to use $50 or $100), a tube is twisted, one end of which is very thin, and the other is equal to the diameter of the nostril. The tube is inserted into the nostril, and the "tracks" are carefully sniffed. Then the tube is unrolled, and the one who believes that he got the least, carefully licks off the rest of the powder from the paper.
Addiction and cocaine psychosis
Long-term cocaine use causes paranoia, deafness, delirium, indigestion, and uncontrolled convulsions. In addition, there is a high probability of problems with the nasal mucosa or hardening of the veins (depending on the method of administration); violation of sleep phases (a person stops getting enough sleep). There is an effect on potency.
The most unpleasant side effect of psychostimulants is the “rebound” in the form of a decrease in motivation, performance and mood, which can lead to the formation of psychological dependence if repeated doses of the stimulant are used to overcome these effects.
The picture of the cocaine paranoid usually boils down to a rapidly flaring ("like a flash") delirium of persecution. Everything around inspires extreme suspicion, at first with an admixture of some curiosity, but soon with anger and aggressiveness. The faces of other people seem distorted from evil intentions. Among the hallucinations, again, tactile hallucinations are characteristic: insects and worms are not only felt crawling on the skin, but there is a conviction that they have penetrated under the skin. Patients try to get them out of there, which is why the skin is covered with many deep scratches and scratches. Auditory and visual hallucinations do not always appear and are episodic. Along with delusions of persecution, delusions of jealousy or delusions of grandeur sometimes develop.
During paranoia, external orderliness of behavior is maintained. On others, they may not give the impression of delusional patients. On the contrary, they are even able to induce others, who at first share their fears, believe their stories.
Free base of cocaine: crack. A type of cocaine that is smoked. At the same time, crack is the most addictive drug, it is 10 times more dangerous than cocaine. Since it enters the bloodstream through the lungs, it reaches the brain in seconds, which means almost instant dependence.
- As with the use of cocaine, there is a state of euphoria, but it lasts only 5-20 minutes. Then comes severe depression.
A person is caught instantly, the next dose is needed almost immediately, it causes a very strong dependence.
In addition to the above, cocaine/crack smokers suffer from acute respiratory problems, including cough, shortness of breath, various asthmas, and severe chest pain with lung involvement and bleeding. In large doses, cocaine can lead to seizures and death from lung failure or cardiac arrest. To date, there is no specific antidote ("antidote") for cocaine overdose.
