Cocaine is one of the most common drugs today. "Behind marijuana, Cocaine is the 2nd most common illegal drug used by people in the U.S. Around 15% (34,000,000 million) of all Americans 12 and older have used cocaine at least once in their life”(anonymous,2011,02). Even though the highest recorded use was in 1985 the use is still high today. Ever since the 1800’s cocaine has been used mainly as elixirs and wines, but still it was used as a drug Thomas Edison used cocaine and it was at one time an ingredient in Coca-Cola. Times have changed though.
Now a day’s anyone can be a user usually they’re the ones that are looking shady on the street, but it could be anyone. In a test it shows that African-Americans are the ones who use cocaine more than anyone. Even the women “Comparison of demographics and substance abuse family and violence histories indicated that African-American women were most likely to be undereducated, crack cocaine dependent, and overly exposed to violence” (Scott, 2011,10). From the street to high class cocaine is in a lot of places and it’s hard to know where. Gang fights are usually common because of the drug, and the fact that they’re addicted and they don’t know how to stop. They get it from South America and are snuck through the border “Intelligence estimates indicate a vast majority of cocaine available in U.S. drug market is smuggled by Mexican drug trafficking organizations across the U.S. border” (Muccio, 2011, 01). Because of this the street value is usually $700 per ounce. This means crime can increase because of this “Using 2001-2005 homicide and toxicology data from Trinidad and Tobago, the studies considers the general context of robbery-related homicides by identifying common place, victim, offender, and time characters” (Pierce, 2011, 1). With reports like that police have been starting to crack down on cocaine trafficking throughout America and Mexico.
“Cocaine is the principal alkaloid in the leaves of Erythroxylon Coca, a shrub indigenous to the Andean region of South America. Cocaine is an ester of benzoic acid and methylecgonine” (Dea, 2009, 1). When cocaine is used it affects both physical and psychological parts of your body. Short term “Physical effects of cocaine include constricted peripheral blood vessels, dilated pupils, and increased pressure and heart rate” (Dea, 2009, 3). Long term effects include your mucous membrane deteriorating so you can get disease, seizures, erectile dysfunction. With cocaine users comes “Anxiety, hallucinations, and depression are common among cocaine users. Severe sleeping disorder can also progress from continuous use” (Roberts, 2010, 1). The thing is though once you’re hooked on cocaine it takes a long and grueling process of rehabilitation to get you back on your feet. Even then you still have the aftereffect of the drug because of it tearing up your body, and your nerve system losing its neuron but that’s to some later in the paper.
Cocaine is used in many ways like smoking, snorting, and injecting. “The high risk associated with cocaine remains the same regardless whether the drug is snorted, smoked, or injected into the users bloodstream” (Damore, 2008,1). Cocaine a long time ago was taken by chewing on coca leaves for the belief of stamina and strength. Today it’s crushed into a powder “Crack cocaine is formed when the aqueous hydrochloride salt is mixed with baking soda and then heated. The soft mass that forms is left to harden into a rock or slab of crack cocaine. This form of cocaine is the cheapest and most potent” (Weekes, 2008, 2). The best way to get off cocaine is to admit you’re self into rehab and have the people there get you off by basically little by little taking away the cocaine until you don’t need it. There are still other ways to get off the drug “Many pharmacotherapies for treating cocaine dependence are aimed at reducing drug effects alleviating cravings, and preventing relapse” (Licata, 2011, 1).The danger of getting rehabilitated is the withdrawal symptoms include “Chronic fatigue, apathy constant irritability, strange restlessness and difficulty relaxing, increased appetite and strange cravings, and unusual and repetitive dreams” (Franklin 2011, 1). Although the method works you won’t be able to undo the damages that the cocaine has already done to your body. Because if used for a long time your brain basically turns into mush, your teeth fall out, your gums inflame and rip, heart failure, etc. Still even with these risks you still need to go to rehab after becoming addicted to cocaine because long term affects are permanent and you can possibly die from an overdose or from heart failure. To go to a rehab just be ready to quit because they won’t admit you if you aren’t ready to quit. Some good rehabilitation centers in California are Tarzana Treatment center and Loma Linda hospital also in California down the 60 freeway about 40 minutes away
Because of its addicting factor cocaine is very valuable like I stated above its street value is around $700, and yet people will do anything to obtain the money from theft to homicide. “About 17 percent of prisoners report committing crime in order to support their drug habit. Drugs are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, whether it’s due to overdose or murder that occurs as a result of altercations related to drug transactions” (Reher, 2010, 2). This doesn’t just occur with grown- ups it also happens with teens and tweens. “36.8 million Americans aged 12 and older have used cocaine at least once in their life according to the White House Drug Policy. Many teens have access to drugs like cocaine or believe they do: about 19 percent of eighth graders, 28 percent of tenth graders and 38 percent of teens in 2008 reported that it was ‘fairly easy’ or ‘very easy’ to obtain drugs, indicating just how prevalent use is amongst teen” (Reher, 2010, 1). Even when a parent takes it there is risk because their kids can take that as right because of kids are taught to follow their parent’s steps at a young age and that usually follows them. With that they are in the world of cocaine at a young age. There are also cases of parents using drugs when they are pregnant “The mother admitted to Summit County Children Services Board that she had used heroin, cocaine, and benzodiazene during her pregnancy and that she had abusing ‘hard drugs’ for over a decade” (Dickson, 2011,1). The child was born with a cocaine addiction and experienced withdrawal symptoms for a long time, and was rehabilitated much later. To everyone’s surprise the child is able to live a healthy life after words and is at home with his mother.
When cocaine is used the aftereffects are all throughout your body, and the harm is very big and eye opening. “Cocaine produces its pleasurable high by interfering with the brains ‘pleasure center’ where chemicals such as dopamine are produced. The drug traps an excess amount of dopamine in the brain, causing an elevated sense of well being” (Damore, 2008, 5). With the sense of well being you start to like and your brain begins to think that it can’t survive without it and thus you have an addiction. Also with you taking cocaine you start to not get the pleasure feeling and you start to take more because of how your brain is used to the drug, and that is a danger of having an overdose. Your brain isn’t the only place that gets messed up your central nervous system also takes a big hit because of the drug. “Cocaine is one of the most dangerous drugs for the central nervous system. As a powerful stimulant, cocaine increases the likelihood of many fatal system malfunctions, including stroke. However, the high initially gotten from cocaine keeps its addicts looking for more, as this highly addicted drug can be difficult to quit. Also, as the neuron transmitters shut down and disappear, the user needs cocaine to create an artificial high (Damore, 2008, 9). As stated early your body is trashed even if you get off the drug so the best thing is not to take it, but still thousands people today are taking cocaine for the first time today. With some tests it turns out you are have same risk for some disease with people that use cocaine than with people that don’t. “Young patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who admit to using cocaine are no more likely to have coronary artery disease (CAD) than young symptomatic patients who haven’t used the drug, new research shows” (Hardina, 2011, 1). Overdosing is a big part of cocaine addiction and is basically a disease to the user. Some people who are total crack heads have been known to add alcohol to their cocaine which can add to them overdosing.
In other words people are throwing their life down the drain for what thirty minutes of that “great” feeling. That feeling is dopamine it’s usually released in small quantities when something good happens like that girl you like hugging you. Your brain basically goes this is nice I like this and dopamine is released. When you take cocaine your brain is like this is nice and releases a crap load of dopamine and your brain is like this so nice I like this and you start to develop an addiction. “Once in the brain, it works in large part by occupying, or blocking, dopamine transporter sites in the terminal buttons of neurons in the brain. This prevents the reuptake of dopamine by the neurons that release it, allowing higher concentrations of dopamine to remain in the synapse for an extended period of time. This abnormally long presence, and high concentration, of dopamine in the synapse is believed to cause the high (among other effects) associated with cocaine use. Dopamine has been implicated in several important functions, including movement, attention, learning, and the reinforcing effects of drug use. Therefore, its extended presence in high concentrations will be effective in the particular parts of the brain that control these functions, such as the basal ganglia and the limbic system” (Amyot, 2008, 1). To summarize that the brain releases dopamine this is used for moving, learning etc. Dopamine is what causes the high you get when you take cocaine or any other drug that gets you high (marijuana, heroine, PCP).
In conclusion cocaine can mess with you in a lot of ways from physical to psychological. With it your life can go down the toilet from getting arrested to your body getting screwed up. With it there is so much trouble so why is it there that is the question that no one knows, but without it the world would be a much better.