Crack - Crack Cocaine

Crack cocaine is a solid, smokable form of cocaine. Crack is a freebase form of cocaine that can be made using baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) or sodium hydroxide, in a process to convert cocaine hydrochloride (Crack is powder cocaine) into methylbenzoylecgonine (freebase cocaine). The drug is highly addictive so if you know someone who needs help please contact Teen Challenge on 0208 553 3338 and complete an application form for the rehab programme.

Physiological effects

The short-term physiological effects of cocaine include: constricted blood vessels; dilated pupils; and increased temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. Large amounts (several hundred milligrams or more) intensify the user's high, but may also lead to bizarre, erratic, and violent behavior. Large amounts can induce tremors, vertigo, muscle twitches, paranoia, or, with repeated doses, a toxic reaction closely resembling amphetamine poisoning. Some users of cocaine report feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. In rare instances, sudden death can occur on the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest.

An appreciable tolerance to cocaine’s high may develop, with many addicts reporting that they seek but fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first experience. Some users will frequently increase their doses to intensify and prolong the euphoric effects. While tolerance to the high can occur, users might also become more sensitive (sensitization) to cocaine's anesthetic and convulsant effects, without increasing the dose taken: this increased sensitivity may explain some deaths occurring after apparently low doses of cocaine.

Crack Addiction

Crack cocaine is the most addicting form of cocaine, and it is one of the most addicting forms of any drug

The intense desire to recapture the initial high is what is so addictive for many users. Purer forms of crack cocaine will produce the feeling of euphoria: even after smoking diluted or fake crack for hours, one hit of real crack will produce euphoria. Hours of misery or tweaking can be reversed with one single hit of real crack. The memory of that type of high can cause addicts to buy large amounts of street crack, hoping for the real thing. Injecting crack causes a very intense rush which will be shortly followed by an equally intense comedown, this is why some users will mix it with heroin, to cushion the comedown with its numbing, pain-relieving effects.

However, the craving is also part of the addiction, Due to the high level of dependence it creates, the crack addicts need it every day. The addictive properties are very strong.

Health issues

Because crack also refers to non-pure (or fake) versions of rock cocaine, the health issues also include risks beyond smoking cocaine. However, crack usage is less dangerous than speedballing or "snowballing" (mixing cocaine with heroin), which leads to more fatalities than either drug used on its own.

When large amounts of dopamine are released by crack consumption, it becomes easier for the brain to generate motivation for other activities. The activity also releases a large amount of adrenaline into the body, which tends to increase heart rate and blood pressure, leading to long-term cardiovascular problems. It is suggested by research that smoking crack or freebase cocaine has additional health issues beyond other methods of taking cocaine. Many of these issues relate specifically to the release of methylecgonidine, and the specific effect of methylecgonidine on the heart, lungs, and liver.

Toxic ingredients - As noted previously, virtually any substance may have been added in order to expand the volume of a batch, or appear to be pure crack. Occasionally, highly toxic substances are used, with an indefinite range of corresponding short- and long-term health risks. If candle wax is bought (as a form of fake crack), it will burn in the pipe as a noxious smoke. If macadamia nuts are bought (perhaps during a police sting that escaped arrest), they will also burn in a crack pipe, producing a noxious smoke.

Smoking problems - The task of introducing the drug into the body further presents a series of health risks. Crack can not be snorted like regular cocaine, so smoking is the most common consumption method. Crack has a melting point of around 90 °C (194 °F), and the smoke does not remain potent for long. Therefore, crack pipes are generally very short, to minimise the time between evaporating and losing strength. This often causes cracked and blistered lips, colloquially "crack lip", from having a very hot pipe pressed against the lips. The use of "convenience store crack pipes" - glass tubes which originally contained small artificial roses - may also create this condition. These pipes are not durable and will quickly develop breaks; users will typically continue to use the pipe until it is only about 1/3 of its original length. The hot pipe might burn the lips, tongue, or fingers, especially when shared with other people quickly taking another hit from the already hot short pipe.

Pure or large doses - Because the quality of crack can vary greatly, some people might smoke larger amounts of diluted crack, unaware that a similar hit of a new batch of purer crack could cause an overdose: triggering heart problems or rendering the user unconscious (like an instant nap).

Germs on pipes - When pipes are shared, unless users rotate and push the pipe to the burnt, sterilized end, any germs from the previous user's mouth can be transferred: tuberculosis can be spread by saliva. Mouth pieces (lengths of tubing added to the end of the glass pipe) are used.

Germs in needles/spoons - When crack is cooked down, as in a spoon with vinegar or lemon juice, for injecting with a syringe, germs can be spread. Sexually transmitted (STD) or HIV germs can be passed through a shared needle (or shared spoon if the needle is emptied into the spoon). Clean injection equipment can prevent these infections.

For comparison purposes, studies have shown that long-term insufflation (snorting) of cocaine in powder form can, after extensive use, destroy tissues in the nasal cavity, and has been known to create deviated septa, potentially collapsing the nose.

Addiction is widely considered a health issue. Unfortunately many governments have made access to clean equipment and education regarding safer practices difficult.