What is Cocaine?
As a street drug, cocaine looks like a fine, white, crystal powder. Street dealers often mix it with things like cornstarch, talcum powder, or flour to increase profits. In addition, they may also mix it with other drugs such as the stimulant amphetamine, or synthetic opioids, including fentanyl. Cocaine is also known as coke, C, flake, snow, crack, and blow. It is highly addictive. Addiction to cocaine can develop quickly, even after trying it only a few times.
Cocaine may increase your alertness and energy because it is a stimulant. It affects the neuropathways in your brain, leading you to feel talkative, energetic, and euphoric. Addiction can be physical, meaning your body craves the drug, or addiction can be mental or you strongly desire the drug’s effects.
For a short period of time, it will bring you feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. As cocaine causes your dopamine levels to rise to make you feel euphoric. Cocaine may also minimize your desire for sleep and food. For some, cocaine helps them think and perform tasks more quickly. Seeing that, many users begin to crave the feelings that cocaine creates.
The frequent use of cocaine can cause you to develop a higher tolerance to the drug. Therefore, this may lead you to use greater amounts of it, which can impact your mental and physical health negatively.
Physical Signs of Cocaine Addiction
- Unhealthy weight loss
- Increased heart rate
- Nausea
- Abdominal pain
- Headaches
- Chest pain
- Heart arrhythmia
- Heart attack
- Seizure
- Stroke
Psychological Signs of Cocaine Addiction
- Paranoia
- Panic
- Hallucinations
- Aggression
- Irritability
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Impaired judgment
- Repetitive or abnormal behaviors
How Do People Use Cocaine?
There are different ways of consuming cocaine. First, it can be inhaled through the nose or injected into a vein. And then, it can be used via genital or rectal routes. Moreover, it can be smoked after being processed into a form called crack cocaine. To emphasize, drug addiction can occur quickly from any of these methods, the user can become addicted to cocaine since the first use, due to its powerful effects and sensations of pleasure and feelings of intense wellbeing, sense of feeling more mentally alert and, heightened sexual arousal.
Repeated exposure to cocaine results in neuroadaptation. This includes sensitization or increased drug response, and then tolerance or decreased drug response. In other words, your body will crave to use more of the drug to get the same effect.
Anyone who uses cocaine is at risk of becoming addicted. If you have a family history of cocaine or another drug dependence. Secondly, if you have an addiction to alcohol or other drugs. Additionally, if you have a mental illness. For instance, if you have depression, it’ll also increase your risk of cocaine addiction.
Cocaine addiction is also associated with medical conditions that include:
- Hepatitis
- Respiratory diseases
- Gangrene of the bowels
- Weakened immune system
- Studies have shown that cocaine use speeds up HIV infection.
What Type of Drug is Cocaine?
Is cocaine an amphetamine? The short answer is no. However, cocaine is a psychostimulant just like amphetamines. Cocaine speeds up your whole body. You may feel full of energy, happy, and excited. But then your mood can change. You can become angry, nervous, and afraid that someone’s out to get you. You might do things that make no sense. After the “high” of the cocaine wears off, you can “crash” and feel tired and sad for days. You also get a strong craving to take the drug again to try to feel better.
No matter how much cocaine is taken, it is dangerous. Some of the most common serious problems include heart attack and stroke. You are also at risk for HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, from sharing needles or having unsafe sex. Cocaine is more dangerous when combined with other drugs or alcohol. It is easy to lose control over cocaine use and become addicted. Then, even if you get treatment, it can be hard to stay off the drug. People who stopped using cocaine can still feel strong cravings for the drug, sometimes even years later.
How is Cocaine Made?
What plant is Cocaine made from and what is Cocaine made out of? For thousands of years, people in South America have chewed and ingested coca leaves (Erythroxylon coca), the source of cocaine, for their stimulant effects. The purified chemical, cocaine hydrochloride, was isolated from the plant more than 100 years ago.
In the early 1900s, purified cocaine was the main active ingredient in many tonics and elixirs developed to treat a wide variety of illnesses and was even an ingredient in the early formulations of Coca-Cola®. Before the development of synthetic local anesthetic, surgeons used cocaine to block pain. However, research has since shown that cocaine is a powerfully addictive substance that can alter brain structure and function if used repeatedly.
What’s in Cocaine?
What is Cocaine made out of? and what is the main ingredient in Cocaine? Cocaine contains a chemical substance called benzoylmethylecgonine. It is found in the leaves of the Erythroxylum coca plant, which grows at high altitudes in the Andes Mountains of Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, as well as on the island of Java in Indonesia.
Today, cocaine is a Schedule II drug, which means that it has a high potential for substance abuse but can be administered by a doctor for legitimate medical uses, such as local anesthesia for some eye, ear, and throat surgeries. Dealers often dilute (or “cut”) it with non-psychoactive substances such as cornstarch, talcum powder, flour, or baking soda to increase their profits. They may also adulterate cocaine with other drugs like procaine (a chemically related local anesthetic) or amphetamine (another psychoactive stimulant). Some users combine cocaine with heroin.
How Does Cocaine Use Lead to Addiction?
National Center for Health Statistics data shows that drug overdose deaths from cocaine use are rising, with more than 16,000 people dying in 2019. Cocaine addiction treatment is required as it is a complex illness. Cocaine addiction has a serious impact on your mental and physical health and can result in premature death.
Is Cocaine Addictive? Although health care providers can use it for valid medical purposes, such as local anesthesia for some surgeries, recreational cocaine use is illegal.
Early Symptoms of Cocaine Addiction
- Irritability or anxiety
- Psychosis and hallucinations
- Withdrawal symptoms when usage stops
- Spending excessive time and money looking for cocaine
- A tolerance for the drug, requiring large amounts to get high
- A desire to keep using even when health complications arise
- A negative impact on quality of life, relationships, and employment
What is Cocaine Made Out of? How is Cocaine Made? Infographic
What is cocaine made out of? and how is cocaine made? An increasing number of what’s sold today as “cocaine” contains no pure cocaine. The drugs labeled as cocaine are mostly some combination of fentanyl or carfentanil and counterfeit over-the-counter drugs.
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Cocaine Addiction Treatment
You will be diagnosed with cocaine addiction based on your current usage and the degree of your dependence on drugs. Most importantly, if you’re a user who wants treatment, you will need to commit to stopping.
There are a variety of treatment methods such as:
- Treatment Facilities – Residential treatment programs work to cover all facets of addiction.
- Medications – Some medications with other purposes can be helpful, such as antidepressants. But, to treat cocaine addiction specifically, there are no medications designed yet.
- Alternative Therapies – Other solutions to help overcome cocaine addiction include exercise, hypnosis, acupuncture, and herbs. However, further research is required to determine the effectiveness of these techniques on addiction to cocaine.
Your very first step in recovery from addiction should be to medical detox, in a safe and medically supervised setting. For anyone who suffers from addiction, just the thought of having to stop using can cause severe mental distress. But, with the help of a medical detox center, the medical detox process is managed.
We Level Up TX’s thorough approach to rehabilitation supports several levels of care to ensure the best possible outcome for every patient who enters our doors. From an intensive and more supportive atmosphere for those in the early days of recovery to a comfortable residential-style living dynamic upon completion of detox, we are here to help guide you down the safe and results-based path to your sobriety.
We Level Up TX Detox center medically assist patients to clear their systems of addictive substances, such as cocaine. A comprehensive team prescribing medications can alleviate your withdrawal pains while monitoring your health 24 hours as we assure both your safety and comfort.
Then, a residential level of care opens up after the detox. Our residential care program slowly and effectively introduces the individual into an atmosphere of therapeutic growth, marked by master’s level therapists, clinicians, group counselors, psychiatrists, and a community of like-minded individuals with the same aim: to attain sobriety and live a great life.
Addiction treatment tailors the program to the individual and the individual to the program of recovery. Medical specialists begin by assessing the client’s history of mental health, drugs, and alcohol-related past. Provided that, the needs of each client are specific and personalized as they aim to provide comprehensive support for mental health, addiction, and dual diagnosis treatment.
Patients in a residential care program will live comfortably within the facility during this crucial and fragile time. This supportive environment is designed to give patients 24-hour care for sobriety, removing temptations for relapse and applying an air of recovery into every component of the treatment timeline, including cocaine addiction treatment. We Level Up TX finds that when clients are living in a supportive community, especially during their early recovery process, they are able to truly focus on what matters most: their recovery.
Call us today if you’re struggling with cocaine as we can help you explore addiction treatment options. What is cocaine made out of? For more information contact We Level Up TX.
Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm – CDC/NCHS National Center for Health Statistics
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/cocaine/what-cocaine – National Institute on Drug Abuse