Since antiquity, Man has turned the world upside down in a desperate search for Philosopher's stone to get the Gold; Elixir to be immortal and Panacea to ease his pain. He soon realised that the first two are unattainable.
He found Alcohol, Marijuana and Opium. These used to be luxuries for the royalty; and to relish the feel of supremacy for those in power. And what if you were powerless? Or felt powerless AND helpless? It hurts. It pains. Then that always has been more the reason to get relief of pain by escape from reality.
Pain relievers - Man discovered aplenty. But, did he secure Panacea? Well, wonderful things were discovered in this quest. Quite a few of these had a curse attached. First Ha
bituation, then dependence and last addiction. .
The list of drugs that relieve pain' or take men into a world of vision and fantasy grows with every new -need in medicine. There are bar biturates, atropine, avertin, cyclopropane, divinyl, Novocaine, paraldehyde, phenobarbital, Pentothal Sodium, phenobarbital, thiopentobarbital, tribomoethanol, and trimethaphan camphorsulfonate. These drugs have been used so much by the habitual that the word" drug" has now a stigma attached. Cocaine enjoys the dubious distinction of being Queen of these addictions.
High profile stories link the drug to celebrities and that boosts image of Cocaine. It underlines association of Cocaine with wealth, success and fame. The string of such famous people who have admitted using the drug includes the former Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon, Tom Parker Bowles, Tara PalmerTomkinson and Damon Albarn.
History
Coca plant leaves were chewed by the Indians of Peru as early as 3,000 B.C.. Coca leaves,rich in India. The risk of rise in the use of"drugs" is even more.
The thrill of it .Cocaine is a powerfully addictive drug of abuse. It is prepared from the leaf of the Erythroxylon coca bush, which grows primarily in Peru and Bolivia. Cocaine is a powerful central nervous system (CNS)' stimulant that heightens alertness, inhibits appetite and the need for sleep, and provides intense feelings of pleasure. Once having tried Cocaine, an individual cannot predict or control the extent to which he or she will continue to use the drug.
Forms
along with coffee, tea, and tobacco, were brought to Europe from.SouthAmerica by the explorers in the 16th century. Cocaine was isolated in 1844 from the coca plant; In 1862, ''Albert Niemann finally extracted purified Cocaine from a crystalline substance derived from coca leaves.
Cocaine was highly regarded in the 1880's and 1890's. Sigmund Freud created a sensation with a series of papers praising Cocaine's potential to cure depression, alcoholism, and morphine addiction. Many prominent figures advocated the therapeutic use of Cocaine: including Pope Leo XII, Jules Verne and Thomas Edison. In 1888, Coca Cola which originally contained Cocaine, advertised itself as "the drink that relieves exhaustion." Coca-Cola has since removed Cocaine from the contents of their drink and replaced it with caffeine. The stimulant' cocoa' also has all the Cocaine removed.
Because of its potent eupJ10ric and energi:.r ing effects, many people in the late 19th century took Cocaine, even though some physicians recognized that users quickly became dependent. Later, it was used as a local anaesthetic for eye, ear, and throat surgery. Scepticism soon replaced this excitement, however, when documented reports of fatal Cocaine poisoning, alarming mental disturbances, and Cocaine addiction began to circulate.
WHO USES COCAINE
The natives of the Andes still chew the unprocessed leaves and they can go for days without feeling hunger or fatigue. The habitual chewer has an unsteady gait, greencrusted teeth, incurable insomnia, and general apathy.
Since 1914, use of the drug was prohibited in USA. Thereafter, abuse of Cocaine was largely non-existent in the United States until the 1960's, except among entertainers and jazz musicians, largely confined to the affluent for being quite expensive. Part of the drug's mystique was its association with celebrities in the music, sports, and show business worlds.Today, people from all walks of life use Cocaine. Young single people are the most freuent users. Now there are a plenty of neo Cocaine is generally sold on the street as a hydrochloride salt - a fine, white crystalline powder known as coke, C, snovv, flake, or blow (see box for slang terms). Street dealers. dilute it with inert but similar-looking substances such as cornstarch or sugar, or with active drugs such as amphetamines. Cocaine hydrochloride can be chemically altered to remove other substances. The pure form of Cocaine that results ("free base") is smoked rather than snorted. The drug commonly called "crack" is a crude form of freebase that has become popular in recent years. Rather than requiring the more volatile method of processing Cocaine using ether - crack Cocaine is processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water and heated to remove the hydrochloride, thus producing a form of Cocaine that can be smoked. The term" crack" refers to the crackling sound heard when the mixture is smoked (heated), presumably from the sodium bicarbonate.
Routes of Administration
The major routes of administration of Cocaine are sniffing or snorting, injecting, and smoking although it may also be rubbed onto the mucous lining of the mouth, rectum, or vagina. Snorting is the process of inhaling Cocaine powder through the nose. To experience Cocaine's effects more quickly, and to heighten their intensity, users sometimes inject it. Smoking involves inhaling Cocaine vapour or smoke into the lungs where absorption is very rapid.
(Yes, I know. The alphabets U, V and X have been left out. While I could not find these in the list of 352 words in the slang glossary on the internet, I am sure there ought to be some words like "Ultra-high" for the kck one gets; "Valentine" for the one who gives you 'crack' for free when you are bankrupt and miserable with withdrawal; and yes, "X-man" for "the-one-who-must-not-be-named"! See, how easily the imagination wanders even while writing on Cocaine!)
There is great risk whether Cocaine is ingested by inhalation (snorting), injection, or smoking. Addiction develops faster with
"'" smoking Cocaine. Smoking allows extremely high doses of Cocaine to reach the brain very quickly and brings an intense and iIIlJIlediate
"""' high. The injecting drug user is at risk for transmitting or acquiring HIV infection/ AIDS, if needles are shared.
EFFECTS
The effects of any drug depend on several factors; like the dose taken, user's past drug experience, route of administration, the circumstances under which the drug is taken (the place, the user's psychological and emotional stability the presence of other people, the simultaneous use of alcohol or other drugs, etc.). The faster the absorption, the more intense is the high but shorter is the duration of action. The high from snorting may last 15 to 30 minutes, while that from smoking may last 5 to 10 minutes. Increased use can reduce the period of stimulation.
Cocaine's short-term effects appear soon after a single dose and disappear within a few minutes or hours. Taken in small amounts (up to 100 mg), Cocaine usually makes the user feel euphoric, energetic, talkative, and mentally alert - especially to the sensations of sight, sound, and touch. It can also temporarily dispel the need for food and sleep.
Paradoxically, it can make some people feel contemplative, anxious, or even panicstricken. Some people find that the drug helps them perform simple physical and intellectual tasks more quickly; others experience just the opposite effect.
Physical Effects
Cocaine produces anaesthetic effects by interfering with the transmission of information from one nerve cell to another. Although used as a local anaesthetic in eye surgery, it was soon found to damage the cornea and had other unwanted side effects.
Cocaine narrows the blood vessels. It increases the respiration rate and body temperature, and also induces vomiting. At high dosages, tremors and convulsions may result. These stimulating effects can rapidly lead to a collapse of the central nervous system, which may then lead to respiratory failure and/or cardiac arrest and finally to death.
Large amounts (several hundred milligrams or more) intensify users' "high," but may also lead to bizarre, erratic, and violent behaviour. These users may experience tremors, vertigo, muscle twitches, and paranoia. After repeated exposure to Cocaine, certain areas of the brain that are concerned with emotion and motivation become more susceptible to a type of seizure (fit).
Cocaine causes profound loss of appetite, leading to severe weight loss and nutritional imbalance. It also causes sleep loss. The symptoms of Cocaine psychosis usually include paranoia; delusions of persecution; visual, auditory, and tactile (touch) hallucinations; an increase in irrationality; restlessness; suspiciousness; depression; and a lack of motivation. Because of increased demands on the heart during Cocaine use, people with heart problems, such as hypertension or cardiovascular disease, are more prone to fatal reactions. There are rare cases of bleeding from the brain occurring from acute rise in blood pressure.
If Cocaine is taken' through the veins, unsterile syringes can cause infections and disease. These infections can include Hepatitis B, blood poisoning, inflammation of the valves of the heart; and, of course, AIDS.
Smoking Cocaine paste produces severe complications: bronchitis, persistent coughing, blurred vision, and pulmonary dysfunction of circulation. Chronic and compulsive Cocaine use leads to depression, anxiety, irritability, and other psyc;hoiogical complaints.
With repeated administration over time, users experience the drug's long-term effects. Euphoria is gradually displaced by restlessness, extreme excitability, insomnia, and paranoia - and eventuaUy hallucinations and delusions. These conditions, clinically identical to amphetamine psychosis and very similar to paranoid schizophrenia, disappear
most cases after Cocaine use is In rare instances,sudden death can occur on the first use of cocaine or uriexpectedly thereafter. However, there is no way to determine who is prone to sudden death.rapidly in ended.
The heavy user may also suffer from mood II! swings, paranoia, loss of interest in sex, weight loss, and insomnia. Chronic Cocaine snorting often causes stuffiness, runny p.ose, eczema around the nostrils, and a perforated ... nasal septum.
TOLERANCE AND DEPENDENCE
Tolerance means higher doses are necessary to achieve the same effects once reached with lower doses. Scientists have not observed tolerance to Cocaine's stimulant effect. Users may keep taking the original amount over extended periods and still xperience the same euphoria. Yet some users frequently increase their.dose to intensify and prolong the effets. Amounts up to 10 g (10,000 mg) have been reported. In fact, some users report that they become more sensitive to Cocaine's anesthetic and convulsant' effects even without increasing the amount. This theory of increased sensitivity has been put forward to explain some deaths that have occurred after apparently low doses.
Ye Dil Maange More!
Many addicts report that they seek but fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first exposure. Despite the fact'that continued use may not reduce the undesirable effects of withdrawal, as long as the drug is available, user find it very difficult to do without Cocaine.
Psychological dependence exists when a drug is so central to a person's thoughts, emotions, and activities that it becomes a craving or compulsion. Among heavy Cocaine users, an intense psychological dependence can occur; they suffer severe depression if the drug is unavailable, which lifts only when they take it again.
Experiments with animals suggest that Cocaine is perhaps the most powerful drug of all in producing psychological dependence. Rats and monkeys made dependent on Cocaine will always strive hard to get more.
Treatment'
The widespread abuse of Cocaine has stimulated extensive efforts to develop treatment programs for this type of drug abuse. In addition to treatment medications, cognitive behavioural therapy can be effective in decreasing drug use by patients. '
De-addiction from Cocaine is _a challenging job even for the highly qualified and skilled experts. The body of the victim is irreversibly damaged. The mind is a wreck. With chronic long-term use, the addict is warped lying, stealing, sex, violence and crime. His "high" in fantasy leaves him "dry" when he touches reality. Holding on to abstinence and rehabilitati,on in the society is the real testing aspect that. frequently defeats the victim as well as the therapist.
. Like in all addictions, "Best time to
stop Cocaine is BEFORE starting it!" |
