The brain has rewired its dopamine process and the user has moved from recreation to full-blown addiction. This brings severe depression, particularly at times of abstinence. In a cruel irony, cocaine heightens dopamine levels needed for basic living, while simultaneously inhibiting natural dopamine production. It also raises the body’s tolerance and the threshold for dopamine, causing it to require higher levels of the chemical to reach the euphoria, and eventually even to feel normal. This creates feelings of euphoria and stimulation and in turn effects an intense physical craving to recreate that enormous overload of pleasure. Among other things, it provides motivation and a pull to activities that provide the reward of pleasure.Ĭocaine releases dopamine to the brain at an unnatural accelerated level and in abnormal quantities. Eventually, the crash runs its course, acute cravings follow, and the vicious cycle begins anew.ĭopamine is a chemical that is organically produced in the human body and is transmitted via the nervous system to the brain. The crash comes hard on its heels and is characterized by complete mental and physical exhaustion and strong depression. In a chase to maintain the rapidly cycling euphoria, the cocaine addict will binge while continuously increasing the dosage levels. Known on the street as “speedballing”, the practice of combining cocaine and heroin is particularly dangerous for cocaine users and consistently causes tragic outcomes. Invariably it will lead to heightened irritability, the onset of paranoia, and many other debilitating repercussions. Initially, it can provide increased energy and alertness and a reduced need for sleep. It has a less intense feel and is spread out over a longer period. Its “high” has a relatively short lifespan and can be over in less than 10 minutes.īy contrast, when snorted or rubbed, its buildup in the brain is slower. When done by way of the latter, it reaches the brain in mere seconds and creates intense and instant euphoria, known as a “rush” in drug abuse parlance. It can also be dissolved in water and injected or in the case of crack, smoked. As mentioned, much of the cocaine on the market is “cut” to raise profit margins or add potency.Ĭocaine is most commonly snorted or rubbed on the gums. A cocaine abuser will put it into their mouth not to check for taste, but to ascertain its level of purity. Crack when smoked, can smell like burnt plastic or rubber. Crack on the other hand comes in rocklike forms.Ĭoke has a natural floral odor, but because of the chemicals used to extract it from the coca plant smells metallic and bitter. Many dealers will dilute cocaine with sugar or local anesthetics, both to increase profits and to vary potency. What Cocaine and Crack looks, smells, and tastes like?Ĭocaine is most commonly produced as a whiteish powdery substance. What are Cocaine and Crack called on the street? Recent statistics have shown rising coke abuse, leading some observers to sound the alarm of a modern-day cocaine resurgence. With the advent of crack, a base form of cocaine much cheaper to produce, it became accessible to even the most impoverished and the American cocaine epidemic was underway. Although initially restricted to the party lifestyle of wealthy celebrities due to prohibitive costs, eventually it trickled down to the general population. It became associated with the entertainment community in the 70’s and gained renown as a “glamour drug” used and abused by the rich and famous. By the 1950’s the cocaine battle was considered over, and its use faded to a niche background.Īnd then Hollywood made it relevant again. Freud himself used the drug extensively and went as far as to call it a “magical” substance in his paper “Uber Coca” (“about coke”), published in 1884.Īs use of cocaine grew and its harmful effects became increasingly evident, efforts began at the federal level to criminalize its marketplace and its possession. It gained widespread use in the medical community as an anesthetic some twenty years later, with Sigmund Freud as one of its chief proponents. German chemist Albert Neiman first isolated cocaine from the plant in 1859. Traditionally the coca plant was used to overcome hunger, fatigue, and pain, as well as playing a primary role in Andean and Peruvian religious cosmologies. Cocaine, a derivative of the coca plant native to western South America, is a naturally occurring stimulant.