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Cocaine Addiction
Cocaine Addiction Help Line is a site dedicated to giving you an
overview of cocaine addiction and to help you find drug treatment that has the
highest percentage of successful outcomes. In choosing a drug rehab for cocaine addiction, one needs to find drug treatment programs that eliminate cocaine, or crack, from the body, otherwise, the physical cravings will restimulate phychological cravings and relapse. Addiction to cocaine is completely curable if someone addicted to cocaine does the appropriate drug rehab program.
Cocaine is usually sold on the street as a fine white powder and is generally
either sniffed into the nose or injected by needle into a vein, with the latter
being the type of administration that becomes the most common with prolonged
cocaine addiction. Everyone using this drug is looking for the euphoric rush
that comes from the drugs ability to stimulate certain receptor sites in the brain.
When cocaine is boiled or cooked with sodium bicarbonate, it is converted into
a freebase form called crack cocaine and is more addictive than in its original
form. It is less expensive, per dose, but in short order becomes devastatingly
costly in terms of human suffering. Crack cocaine is not injected into the veins
or snorted in the nose but is heated and burnt. The smoke is inhaled, which
causes a brief, intense high that last a few minutes and then the user falls quickly
into a feeling of emptiness and depression. This cycle continually motivates the
user to repeat this process over and over again until external circumstances
interrupt this cycle, such as, running out of crack and/or money. The user
is then left in a state of physical and emotional exhaustion. Choosing to start
this process, knowing that the end result will always be some level of depression,
is ample evidence of the insanity of addiction and speaks to the amount of
discomfort a person must feel before they can willfully allow themselves to walk
down that path.
The effects of cocaine are similar to those of crack, but less intense.
The smoke and vapors of the burning cocaine rock (crack) pass quickly into
the blood stream and then to the brain and cause an increase in dopamine by
blocking the normal recycling/uptake processes of these neurohormones. The high
levels of dopamine stimulate the nerve cells and cause the intense feeling of
euphoria. After these receptors sites have been overly stimulated, they are
temporarily no longer able to produce the natural effects of feeling well without
the drug. Instead, the person feels depressed and even suicidal. This compelling
crack addiction is so strong that sometimes it causes people to take their first
hit and never return home to their normal lives for days, if ever.
Dependency develops in after the first few uses of the drug and cocaine
addiction can develop from that point forward. Tolerance develops quickly, meaning
that it takes more and more of the drug to come close to the same desired outcome,
which causes the user to seek and use larger amounts of the drug. This can lead to
secondary physical problems that are life threatening, ie. Heart attacks,
convulsions, etc.
In the short-term, with a "normal" cocaine doses, one feels energetic, restless talkative,
euphoric, with an increase in pulse rate, temperature, blood pressure, mental
alertness, followed by a temporary decrease in appetite.
Cocaine in large doses one will feel bizarre and perhaps violent and/or paranoid,
muscle tremors, dizziness and a sense that the room is spinning. Cocaine use
may also cause hallucinations and a dehumanizing feeling that leads to problems
in all personal and work relationships. Weight loss is also associated with
cocaine addiction in the same manner that it is with amphetamines.
As a person become accustomed to being high on cocaine, he loses his
established ideas about reality and will take risks that he would never dream
of doing before his drug use. These risks lead to irresponsibly spending money
and violating ones ethical codes so that when they come down they feel as
thought they can't confront their situation. They become frightened of the
situation they have created and this causes the desire for more drugs to escape
the mess that is their lives.
Physical decline is most pronounced due to the lack of good nutrition and
sleep. One can also experience abnormal heart conditions, breathing problems,
heart attacks, problems with the nasal septum or passages, an increased risk
for infections, thinking problems, seizures and strokes.
In seeking cocaine drug rehabilitation for these conditions, find
a program that demonstrates a high success in rehabilitating their clients
addiction. You should look for a program that doesn't see this addiction as a
disease or a moral problem. Find one that has the clinical skills to address the cocaine
addiction by demonstrating its successes statistically and through testimonials
from graduates of the program that can speak to you directly. Cocaine drug
rehabilitation programs with the highest successes are those that employ the
biophysical component. The biophysical component cleanses the body of the cocaine metabolites that continually causes the addict to crave and experience
"positive" memories of their past use. Cocaine metabolites also bypass any rational
reasoning to stop using the drug. Most treatment facilities
will admit that they have a very poor to negligible impact on helping cocaine addicts.
Only cocaine drug rehabilitation centers that use the biophysical approach can expect
to have positive outcomes with this addiction.
It is a tragedy that we have these drugs being promoted to our youth and young
adults. The unbearable pain that users and families go through when they are
caught up in this addictive process is why we must demand that we receive treatment
that works and do not allow a short period of addiction in one's life to limit their
eventual success and happiness.
After being in the alcohol and other drug rehabilitation fields for over thirty
years, I have witnessed a large number of people receive inadequate care and
spend years trying to make up for the damage that was created in short order with
this addiction. It doesn't have to be that way. There are programs that can
restore someone to a very functional state, in fact, they will come out of treatment
with more personal skills and abilities than they have ever had. So, do your
homework and don't settle for anything less than a program that has documented
success. Unfortunately, the majority of programs that are available to the public
are not what is needed. This is an evolving field and it is still in its infancy.
Many programs evolved from an idea that all addiction is a disease, both
chronic and progressive. This means that it lasts forever and gets worse no matter
whether one is using or not. This is categorically not true! This is merely a
testament to the outcome of poorly conceived and administered treatment programs.
It is not unusual to find people that are going through numerous programs over
many years because they believe that this "disease" is chronic and progressive.
However, there are programs available in the US that can even guarantee that
they will end one's addiction. These are the types of programs that you should
seek, no matter what it takes to find them. Anything less is a sentence to more
needless suffering.
History of Crack in America
As America moved through the 1980s, both heroin and cocaine use persisted, and a few new drugs emerged. One of these was Ecstasy, a synthetic hallucinogen that was quickly outlawed. Of greater concern, however, was the reportedly new drug called "crack".... referred to in the media as a cheap variety of street cocaine that could be smoked and was highly addictive.
Contrary to popular belief, crack is not a new substance, having been first reported in literature during the early 1970s. At the time, however, knowledge of crack, known then as "base" or "rock" (not to be confused with "rock cocaine". Crack is processed from cocaine hydrochloride by adding ammonia or backing soda and water and by heating it to remove the hydrochloride. The result is a pebble-sized crystalline form of cocaine base. Interestingly, crack gets its name from the fact that the residue of sodium bicarbonate often causes a crackly sound when the substance is smoked.
The rediscovery of crack during the early 1980s seemed to occur simultaneously on the East and West Coasts.
Crack was an immediate success for a variety of reasons. First, it could be smoked rather than snorted. When cocaine is smoked, it is more rapidly absorbed and reportedly crosses the blood-brain barrier within six seconds, hence, an almost instantaneous high. Second, it was cheap. While a gram of cocaine for snorting may cost $60 or more depending on its purity, the same gram can be transformed into anywhere from five to thirty rocks. For the user, this meant that individual "rocks" could be purchased for as little as $5, $10 or $20. For the seller, $60 worth of cocaine hydrochloride could generate as much as $150 when sold as rocks. Third, it was easily hidden and transportable, and when sold in small glass vials, it could be readily scrutinized by potential buyers.
By the close of 1985, crack had come to the attention of the media and was predicted to be the "wave of the future" among substance abusers, and by mid-1986 national headlines were calling crack a glorified version of cocaine and the major street drug of abuse in the US. There was also the belief that crack was responsible for rising rates of street crime!'
Crack distribution rivalries had created homicide epidemics that turned entire stretches of urban America into “dead zones”, meaning that they were written off by law enforcement as too dangerous to patrol. Other victims were the users, the neighborhoods, “crack babies” (those born addicted) and child abuse of children born into crack using parents. For the better part of the 1980s cocaine and crack were drugs of epidemic proportions.
Today, we still have crack as a major drug problem in most areas of the U.S. and most drug treatment facilities do not have outcomes that are keeping up with the developing cocaine and crack pushing in our communities.
If you know someone that is addicted to either of these drugs, please call us so that we can help you help them!
1-877-444-1137 or 1-888-781-7060
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