Cocaine
{Coke, Charlie, Snow, Crack Rock}
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Risks
How you take cocaine
The way that you take cocaine changes some of the harms that you can experience from it.
Snorting can lead to frequent nosebleeds and runny nose, loss of smell, and problems swallowing.
Gumming can cause damage to your lips, gums and teeth.
Smoking crack cocaine can worsen an already existent asthma condition, and cause lung damage. It also increases your chance of contracting infections (e.g. pneumonia)..
Injecting cocaine is especially dangerous because of the high risk of contracting diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, among others. Injecting can also lead to collapsed veins and scarring.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
After using cocaine, it's common to experience mood swings and low mood. Try to reflect on your use as regularly as possible to make sure that it isn't negatively affecting your life. Look at your relationships, your work, and your behaviour.
Cocaine dependence
Cocaine is a highly addictive drug. Although you won’t necessarily become addicted after only using it once, repeated use can cause dependence down the line. About 17% of people who try cocaine end up becoming addicted. We advise that you limit cocaine consumption for very rare occasions and never introduce it into your daily lifestyle.
Keep in mind that the addictiveness of cocaine is dependent on the way you use it. Chewing coca leaves rarely leads to addiction, but it’s now one of the least common ways of consuming cocaine. On the other hand, smoking crack cocaine and injecting cocaine are much more likely to lead to addiction.
Withdrawal
When you stop using cocaine, your body enters a state of withdrawal. The effects of this depend on how often you use cocaine and how much you take. If you experience withdrawal symptoms, they can be a sign of cocaine dependence and you should seek help. Most importantly, don’t take more cocaine to overcome a crash or withdrawal.
These symptoms of cocaine withdrawal include:
- Depression
- Fatigue
- Increased appetite
- Unpleasant dreams and insomnia
- Slowed thinking
Learn more about withdrawal in our guide.
How to get help
About 70% of people who go into treatment for powdered cocaine problems either stop taking the drug completely or take a lot less within 6 months. The hard but important part is recognizing that you or someone you know is addicted; this is the first step towards getting help.
If you think you or someone you know are showing signs of dependence, seek help immediately by contacting emergency services or drug treatment facilities in your area. Treatments available include:
Behavioural Intervention
This includes contingency management (CM), cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and/or therapeutic communities (TCs)
Telephone Counseling
If cost is an issue, telephone counseling is a less expensive type of treatment that can be very effective as well.
Medication
While there is no accepted medication that treats cocaine dependence, many drugs are being tested at the moment.
It’s important for anyone with a cocaine dependence to try different types of treatment to see what best fits and helps them. Sometimes a combination of therapies is the best strategy. In addition, people with dependence on cocaine or any other drug need to address any social, familial or mental health troubles.
Long-term effects of cocaine...
When cocaine is used over a long period of time, it can have damaging long-term effects on a few of the body’s systems. Each method of using cocaine (snorting, smoking, injecting etc.) also has its own physical effects.
Gastrointestinal Tract (Stomach and Digestive System)
Cocaine reduces blood flow to your stomach, which can cause tears and ulcerations. Chronic users often lose their appetite and find themselves losing a lot of weight.
Heart and Cardiovascular System
Chronic cocaine use can lead to a high risk of stroke and inflammation of the heart muscle. After long-term cocaine use, the heart can lose its ability to pump blood properly and it can become easier to tear the aortic muscle. As a result, heavy cocaine users often experience chest pains, heart attacks and even heart failure.
Brain and Nervous System
Long-term cocaine use can cause bleeding within the brain to occur. There is some evidence that important mental functions such as attention, memory and decision making become impaired as well. This may be due to a reduction in the amount of blood reaching the brain with frequent cocaine use.
Mental Health
Regular cocaine use can worsen your mental health. Depression and anxiety are common results of chronic use.
References: NIDA, 2016; Brody, 2003; Brazier, 2017; Egred and Davis, 2005; Frazer et al., 2018; NIDA, 2016
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Put your brand in front of thousands monthly and support the growth of harm reduction.