›› How & Why Addicts Use Cocaine

Cocaine is a recreational drug that is highly addictive. In fact, once you try it you are more than likely to be hooked simply because it causes certain chemical reactions in the brain to be sped up. This results in enhanced feelings of pleasure and euphoria. The feeling is so amazing in fact that after trying cocaine once you will want to try it as often as possible. Then, soon you become addicted and no longer is it recreation but rather something you must have and will do anything to get. The following information will discuss how cocaine is sued as well as its effects.

How is Cocaine Used?

Cocaine is used by injecting, snorting, mainlining, chewing, and smoking, or at least that’s what they say on the street. For non cocaine users it might be easier to understand that cocaine is used orally, by inhaling it, intravenous, as well as intranasal.

Oral use of cocaine is when the drug is rubbed inside the lip. Occasionally cocaine is mixed with heroine and this is called a speedball.

Those who snort cocaine inhale the powder into their nostrils. The drug then enters the bloodstream through the mucous membranes in the nose.

Intravenous use of the drug requires it being mixed with water and then injected via syringe into a vein. This allows the drug to enter the bloodstream very quickly and enhances its effects.

Inhaling the drug by smoking it is another way to get the drug in your bloodstream rapidly. The smoke enters the lungs and then the bloodstream so smoking is practically as fast as injecting.

What are Cocaines Effects?

Cocaine is not a safe drug and any time it is used in any of the above forms it can result in an overdose. Also, any way the drug is used it is addictive so opting for one method over another to avoid addiction simply isn’t realistic. Cocaine has a variety of effects on the human body. The effects of cocaine use include both short term and long term effects.

The short term effects of cocaine use include mental alertness, high blood pressure, dilated pupils, increased heart rate, constricted blood vessels, increased temperature, reduced appetite, and more. These short term effects can be noticed within moments of cocaine use, although not all users will experience all effects. These short term effects can be damaging even to the first time user or it might take multiple uses for them to really affect the individual. Death can even occur after the first use because of cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, or seizures.

Long term effects include weight loss since cocaine use suppresses the appetite. It also increases energy allowing individuals to go longer and harder than normal. However, long term use of cocaine may result in respiratory failure, heart attacks, heart disease, respiratory failure, seizures, gastrointestinal issues, strokes, nausea, blurred vision, fever, chest pain, coma, convulsions, and even muscle spasms.

As an individual becomes more addicted to the drug it can cause personality changes. The effects of cocaine use can then result in skipping work, lying, cheating, stealing, and denying the use of cocaine.

Cocaine use results in death for many users because they are always chasing the high. This means they take larger doses more often trying to recapture that initial feeling the drug gave them. However, that first high can never be achieved again and it can cause the user to feel insane and participate in reckless behavior that may result in death.