Cocaine Addiction

Crack Cocaine

Blow, nose candy, and toot.  Cocaine is known by many names.  First used as a local anesthetic in the eyes, nose, and throat for surgeries, cocaine has since been replaced by safer drugs in medical procedures.

Cocaine can be snorted, smoked, or injected.  When the substance is snorted, cocaine is inhaled through the nasal cavity where it is absorbed in the bloodstream through the nasal tissues.  When cocaine is injected, the drug user uses a needle filled with a cocaine and water mixture to release the substance directly into the bloodstream.  When cocaine is smoked, the vapors travel into the lungs where the absorption rate is just as fast as when released into the bloodstream by injection.  Each of these methods provides a rapid method to develop a drug addiction with cocaine and its various forms.

Cocaine is extracted through a process of chemical changes from the leaves of the coca plant, which is native to the Andean highlands of South America.  Much of the cocaine available in the United States is transported from South American nations, particularly Colombia, through the Mexico-Central America Corridor.

Cocaine was first Federally-regulated in December 1914 with the passing of the Harrison Act. This Act banned non-medical use of cocaine, prohibited its importation, imposed the same criminal penalties for cocaine users as for opium, morphine, and heroin users and required a strict accounting of medical prescriptions for cocaine.  Drug addiction was becoming an expensive habit in America in more than one way.

As a result of the Harrison Act and the emergence of cheaper, legal substances such as amphetamines, cocaine became scarce in the U.S. However, use began to rise again in the 1960s, incited Congress to classify it as a Schedule II substance in 1970.

The 1980s saw the rise of cocaine as a fashionable drug of the rich and famous.  Studio 54, the infamous night club, perpetuated the use of cocaine as a socially acceptable method of relaxation.  People were more confused than ever as to what qualified as an actual drug addiction.  The early part of the decade also saw the invention of “crack” cocaine.

When cocaine is mixed with baking soda and heated, a soft gooey substance is formed which then hardens into a rock formation.  This is then incinerated by an open flame and inhaled into the lungs where it is metabolized into the bloodstream.  Crack gets its name from the sound it makes as it is heated.  Crack cocaine is a much cheaper form of cocaine and widely available across the United States.