What is cocaine?
What does it look like?
Legal penalties
How cocaine is used
How crack cocaine is used
The effects of cocaine use
The effects of crack cocaine use

What is cocaine?

Cocaine is a powerful but short-lasting stimulant which is extracted from the leaves of the coca plant. Two of the most common types of cocaine used in the UK are cocaine powder (hydrochloride), and crack cocaine. Cocaine sold on the street may have been cut (mixed) with other substances by a chain of dealers in order to maximise their profit. Most cocaine sold in the UK can be 80-90% pure, and is cut with glucose powder, which is not in itself harmful.

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What does it look like?

Cocaine hydrochloride is a bitter-tasting fine white crystalline powder.

Crack cocaine is the base material left after cocaine hydrochloride has been chemically treated, separating the base material from the salt crystals, and looks like small crystal chips. It is sometimes referred to as freebase cocaine.

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Legal penalties

Cocaine and crack cocaine are Class A drugs, which carry heavy legal penalties:

For possession: a maximum sentence of 7 years and a fine.

For supply: a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a fine.

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How cocaine is used

Cocaine hydrocloride powder is usually snorted through the nose using a straw or rolled tube. It can also be injected.

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How crack cocaine is used

Freebase crack cocaine is not sniffed, but is usually smoked or burned and the vapours inhaled. It does not dissolve well and is difficult and dangerous to inject.

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The effects of cocaine use

The more cocaine is administered at any one time, the more on edge people can feel. This is because the central nervous system is over-stimulated.

Most people who snort cocaine hydrochloride powder report a potent feeling of exhilaration combined with energy. This comes on after about three minutes and begins to fade after about forty minutes. The cocaine injection 'rush' can affect people in different ways. Some feel nausea, while others feel intense exhilaration.

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The effects of crack cocaine use

The sense of exhilaration when smoking crack is instantaneous, but the sensation does not last long - usually under ten minutes.

As tolerance to crack cocaine develops in some users, so there is a need to use more of the drug to maintain the same effect.

Physical

Dry mouth, hot sweats, faster heart rate and increased risk of a stroke or heart attack, loss of appetite, runny nose, and nasal irritation are some of the main physical effects. Regular users may experience diarrhoea, body tremors, and may also find sleeping difficult. Injection of the drug carries the risk of abscesses and blood clots, and where injecting equipment is shared, an increased chance of spreading blood-borne disease such as hepatitis C or HIV.

Other dangers

Cocaine is also a local anaesthetic, and can therefore mask physical sensations arising from poor injecting technique and needle siting (for example injecting into an artery).

A long-term cocaine habit can also result in a range of problems arising from weight loss and dehydration as well as damage to the inside of the nose, and reduced liver function. Cocaine and crack use has been known to increase sexual desire, although regular use can in fact depress sexual performance and sexual sensations for both men and women.

Psychological

Long-term psychological effects from regular use can include mood swings, anxiety, paranoia, aggression, confusion and hypersensitivity. Cocaine psychosis with hallucinations has been reported but is rare.

Overdose

Deaths from overdose are fairly rare from cocaine use on its own. Occasionally cocaine has been mixed with other drugs such as heroin and has caused death from overdose.

Dependence and withdrawal

Withdrawal from any heavy habit will produce physical symptoms such as longterm fatigue, depression, anxiety, a sense of isolation and agitation, and this is also true of withdrawal from regular cocaine or crack cocaine use. It is the psychological dependence rather than the physical dependence which is higher among cocaine users. But complications can arise because of the effects crack has on the parts of the brain which control feelings. The psychological dependence can produce an acute craving which needs to be effectively managed.

There is a lot which treatment can offer to the cocaine and crack cocaine user. Treatments on offer through drug services which are known to help users manage their withdrawal include: acupuncture in the ear, relaxation and craving control techniques, identifying and managing responses to craving triggers, and learning how to control agitation, anxiety and panic.

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