What is cocaine?

Cocaine is derived from Erythroxylon coca, a densely-leafed plant native to South America. It is widely cultivated in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Columbia, currently the source of some 80 percent of the world's cocaine. Cocaine is the world's most powerful naturally occurring stimulant.

Coca and its derivatives are usually used in one of four ways: - The leaves are sucked or chewed. - Coca paste is eaten or smoked, primarily in some South American slums. - Cocaine hydrochloride, or cocaine powder, a white crystalline powder with a bitter, numbing taste is sniffed or diluted and then injected. - Freebase or crack cocaine is made by cooking cocaine hydrochloride with ammonia or baking soda. Freebase was originally produced in an explosive, multi-step process. Crack is safer to produce - no explosions. Crack and freebase are smoked from pipes; burnt on a piece of tin foil; or mixed with tobacco or marijuana in a smokeable joint.

How is "crack" different from "cocaine?" For most of its history, cocaine has been abused in a powder that is sniffed or diluted then injected. Sniffed powder cocaine produces a high in about 15 minutes. The high lasts about half an hour. Powder cocaine has been abused by the wealthy and middle classes since the late 1800s, and has destroyed many thousands of those abusers. Some abusers have cooked cocaine with other chemicals to make a smokeable form of the drug that creates a quicker, more intense high. This process is called freebasing. Freebasing never became popular because it often caused sudden deadly explosions. In the early 1980s, drug dealers discovered a way to cook cocaine without the risk of explosions. Crack cocaine was born. Crack is actually a less pure type of freebase cocaine. It has the super-strong, quick high of freebase cocaine without the explosiveness. In addition, a dose strong enough for a huge high can be sold very cheaply. Suddenly cocaine, which had been a rich person's drug, became available to the poor. Drug dealers swarmed over the poorest inner-city neighborhoods selling this poison in the 80s and 90s, ruining hundreds of thousands of lives.

Powder Cocaine Crack

Very fine in texture, like flour. Chemically processed into rock-like chunks, about the size of peas.

Often mixed with other drugs or substances (amphetamine, caffeine, strychnine, talcum powder, etc.,) making it more toxic. Combined with ammonia or baking soda and may contain various impurities.

Is sniffed up the nose; may be rubbed on gums or other tissues. · Is smoked in a pipe.

Takes 15-30 minutes to have an effect. Takes about 10 seconds to have an effect.

Has a "high" that lasts 15-30 minutes. Has a "high" that lasts less than 10 minutes.

Is very expensive per dose.

U.S. MANDATORY MINIMUM prison sentence for possession = 5 years for 4 ounces (500 g.)

Is not expensive by the dose.

US MANDATORY MINIMUM prison sentence for possession = 5 years for one-fifth of an ounce (5 g.)

History of Cocaine and Crack Use

In ancient times, South American natives used coca for religious and medicinal purposes. They used its stimulant properties to fight fatigue and hunger, and to enhance endurance. The Spanish conquistador banned coca at first, but when they discovered that the addicted natives could barely work the fields in the gold mines without it, they began to distribute it to the workers three or four times a day.

The Spanish conquistadors introduced coca to Europe, where it was used only occasionally until the 19th Century. The active ingredient of the coca plant was first isolated in 1859. Coca leaves were soon processed into cocaine hydrochloride, the powder form of the drug. However, cocaine was taken mostly in liquid form at that time, whether by mouth or by injection. Sigmund Freud experimented with cocaine extensively in the latter part of the century. Doctors began to use cocaine as an antidote to morphine addiction, but some of the patients ended up addicted to both.

In 1863, the coca wine Vin Mariani went on sale throughout France. It contained 6 mg cocaine per ounce of wine in France, but exported Vin Mariani contained 7.2 mg per ounce to compete with the higher cocaine content of American competitors.

German ophthalmologist, Carl Koller, discovered cocaine's effectiveness as an anesthetic for eye surgery in about 1880. Until that time, eye surgery was done without adequate anesthesia, sometimes requiring a conscious patient to move his eye without flinching as a surgeon directed him.

Cocaine was soon sold over-the-counter. Until 1914, one could buy it at department stores. It was widely used in tonics, toothache cures and patent medicines, and in chocolate cocaine tablets.

Coca-Cola was introduced in 1886 and was promoted as a drink "offering the virtues of coca without the vices of alcohol." Until 1903, a typical serving contained around 60mg of cocaine. The new beverage was invigorating and popular. Today, Coca-Cola is still flavored with an extract of coca-leaves, but contains none of the drug itself.

By 1890, the addicting and psychosis-producing nature of cocaine was well understood in the medical community, but no laws banning the general use of the drug were made until 1914. Perhaps it was cocaine's effectiveness in reducing the swelling of mucous membranes, consequently enlarging the nasal and bronchial passages, that gave users the idea of sniffing cocaine. Whatever the origin of that idea, by 1905 it was the most popular method of using the drug. In 1910, the first cases of nasal damage from cocaine snorting were written of in medical literature. In 1912, the U.S. Government reported 5,000 deaths from cocaine use -- when the US population was only a third of what it is today!

Effects of Cocaine Use

There is no safe way to use cocaine! The health risks become much worse when combined with alcohol or other drugs. Alcohol and cocaine combined produce coca ethylene, which intensifies cocaine's effects and may increase the risk of sudden death. Cocaine's many dangers include:

Neurological Effects

Headaches

Convulsions

Seizures

Coma

Heart Disease

Altered heart rhythm

Chest pain

Very high or very low blood pressure

Heart attack

Endocarditis -- Heart infection

Stroke

Sudden death

Lung Damage and Disease

Difficulty breathing

Chronic bronchitis

Ruptured lung structures

Collapsed lung

Respiratory failure

Psychological Damage

Irritability and mood disturbances

Auditory hallucinations (imaginary sounds that seem real.)

Formicating - The sensation that insects are crawling under the skin

Reproductive System Damage

Sexual dysfunction in both males and females

Menstrual cycle disturbances

Infertility in both males and females

Danger During Pregnancy

Miscarriage, premature delivery, or stillbirth of pregnancies

Addicted newborns

Low birth weight, smaller head size, and shorter length in newborns

Deformities in newborns of addicted mothers or addicted fathers.

Other Damage

Burns in mouth and on hands from smoking

"Tracks" - puncture marks on arms or wherever injections are made

Infections and sores associated with injection tracks.

Incontinence (inability to control urination and/or bowel movements.)

Allergic reactions to cocaine or the additives in street drugs

Brain infections - both bacterial and fungal, sometimes leading to abscesses

Weight loss and malnourishment due to decreased appetite for food

Gangrene (rot) of bowels and other body parts from lack of blood flow

More risk-taking behavior, including unsafe sex

Increased risk of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, either from unsafe sex or using infected needles

Back to Site Content:

Back to top of page: