Cocaine Vs Crack Cocaine

Pure cocaine is the product of the Erythroxylon coca bush, which is mostly found in South America (NIDA, 2014). In South America the consumption of the coca leaf have been recorded as far back as 3000 B.C. (Warner EA, 1993). The coca leafs only contain about two percent of cocaine and in this form there is few instances of abuse. The rate at which it is absorbed is slow in the digestive system and very little cocaine reaches the bloodstream. When the Spaniards came to the Inca civilization in 1532 the drug allowed the locals to endure a harsh and physically demanding life in the Andes. It was seen as a gift from the god Inti (Inciardi, 2002, pg. 49). Even today those natives of the region chew the coca leaves.

After the conquest of the Inca

civilization the Spaniards brought back the coca leaves to Europe. The leaves however had lost their potency after the long voyage back and were forgotten until the late 1850’s. The German chemist Alfred Niemann was able to isolate the active ingredient of the coca plant. The first time cocaine was synthesized was in 1855. The renewed interest in cocaine stormed through the 1860’s finding its way in wine. In America pharmacist John Pemberton made a wine with cocaine and in 1885 replaced the alcohol with carbonated water. He changed the formula of the mixtures and combine the coca with African kola nut and Coca-Cola was born (Levinthal, 2012, pg. 168). The drink was advertised as a brain tonic that made you feel more productive and fight depression.

During the 1880’s numerous drug companies had created cocaine hydrochloride, which was more powerful than just chewing the coca leafs. In 1884, Sigmund Freud wrote to his future wife that he believed cocaine would “win its place in therapeutics by the side of morphine and superior to it” (Hellerman, 2011). As a result of Freud wanting to write about cocaine he finished a seventy-page report titled “Uber Coca” stated that he could prove a cure for morphine addiction. Somewhere in this report he mentioned how he believed that it could be a powerful painkiller and when a well-known New York surgeon by the name of William Halsted read it began to explore that belief. Halsted was one of the founders of the John Hopkins School of Medicine and studied the effects of cocaine in anesthetizing nerves and whole limbs. Halsted began to inject cocaine into his own body but became addicted to the drug. Freud would also have a different view of cocaine later on when started to become addicted to it like he was with nicotine later but his colleague was not so lucky. Dr. Ernst von Fleischo-Marxow, began taking twenty time the amount of cocaine that Freud had been administering and developed a servere cocaine-induced psychosis. This psychosis produced hallucinations that there were snakes crawling over his skin and he suffered these until his death six years later.

The use of cocaine from the 1880’s to the early 1900’s saw a dramatic change in the public reaction to the drug. During the early years the public was enthusiastic about it and by 1914 there was a widespread disapproval of cocaine. In 1903, seeing that the public reaction toward cocaine was changing Coca-Cola had stopped producing cocaine in their drinks. In 1914, Congress passed the Harrison Narcotics Act, banning the nonmedical use of cocaine.

Once the drug was banned it fell off the radar and until the 1970’s the public had long forgotten the stories of addicts and criminals associated with cocaine. The new development of free-base cocaine and crack cocaine created an explosion in the drugs prominence. The free-base form of cocaine is a smokable form with the intent of getting a more intense effect. Smoking cocaine also allows the drug to reach the brain faster but it is highly flammable. Therefore, during the 1980’s crack cocaine took the United States by storm. The nation was transitioning from the 1960’s and 1970’s where drugs were used quite commonly used. The nation was accepting and when the 1980’s came around that changed dramatically. When the Gallup polls surveyed people in the late 1970’s the Americans did not mention drug abuse has one of the important issues that the nation is facing. However, drug use was at an all time high and drug and abuse did not even appear at all in the Gallup polls during 1979 and 1984. By 1989 64% of Americans thought that drug use and abuse was one of the most important issues facing the country (Goode & Ben-Yehuda, 1994).

Crack cocaine appeared first in major cities in 1981.

At first the police did not recognize this new rock-like material, but when it was chemically analyzed it revealed to be cocaine as a freebase. The first large-scale use and mass production was in 1984 in Los Angeles. In 1985, crack cocaine was fairly unknown to the majority of the citizens in America but by the time the year ended the news networks had coverage over the outbreak in the drugs usage.

The difference between cocaine and crack cocaine is that crack is more pure than cocaine. When cocaine was sold it was forty-five percent filler such as icing sugar or even other drugs. Crack cocaine however, could be purchased what the same price and be eighty percent pure. This lead to issues with people who had been taking cocaine and switched to crack thinking they could take the equivalent amount. This caused a spike that was nearly double the rate of hospital admissions due to cocaine overdose from the previous in 1983 (rehabs.com,

2013).

One of the reasons why crack cocaine became so popular other than being a more pure form was the ability to easily smoke it. Crack cocaine only requires a temperature of 194 degrees Fahrenheit to vaporize, which is below the point at which water boils. Cocaine hydrochloride however needs to be heated up to 370 degrees Fahrenheit. Another besides almost twice as high vaporization point is that when cocaine hydrochloride is heated up to smoke it is extremely close to burning which would be ingestion difficult.

During the 1970’s and 1980’s the United States economy was struggling through a recession, which didn’t allow people to afford any extras. Poor communities found across the nation and especially those in the inner cities began to buy the drug because of how cheap it was. A person could buy a couple of rocks for a few dollars and experience a get away from the pains of their lives. The user was able to experience an intense fifteen-minute high, which got them addicted quickly. The crime rate grew because people were willing to do anything in order to get their next high. The escalation in crime and the new wave of drug addicts had to spark some change in the country.

Len Bias was a young basketball star from the University of Maryland who had just been drafted by the Boston Celtics when he died. The report showed that after a night out partying he suffered from a heart attack caused by cocaine. Following this Congress in 1986 and also in 1988, passed mandatory sentencing laws that to unprecedented prison populations. Known as the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 it created a five year minimum prison sentence for anyone convicted of trafficking five grams of crack cocaine or five-hundred grams of powder cocaine, and a ten year minimum prison sentence for individuals convicted of trafficking fifty grams of crack cocaine or five thousands grams of powder cocaine (Muhlhausen, 2010). The debate on why someone, which powder cocaine, doesn’t receive as much jail time has been widely debated for years. It has caused the judges to deviate from the mandatory minimum and look at the person, as a whole to see what sentence span seems appropriate.

The history of cocaine dates back thousands of years and the use of the drug has been traced through varies forms of literature but what does the drug actually do to one’s body? Cocaine is a drug in which dramatically increases the level of dopamine in the body. Dopamine is the ability for your body to produce a natural good feeling or a ‘high.’ Cocaine blocks these receptors allowing the dopamine to bring the feeling of pleasure. The issue with chronic cocaine abuse, however, means that the user will lose typically about twenty percent of his or her dopamine receptors in the brain over time. This is very dangerous because the user is unable physical to produce the pleasure to satisfy the brain anymore. The user shifts from taking the drug in order to receive the pleasure to keeping themselves out of depression. Lori Whitten wrote that when it reaches this point this is now disconnect between ‘liking’ and ‘wanting’ (Whitten, 2009). Cocaine users can continuously use cocaine in order to keep the euphoria that their body loves. One of the issues is the severe crash from the euphoria stage when the drug’s effects begin to wear off. The body is trying to recover from the disruption of its normal balance with the chemicals in the user’s brain.

The deterioration of the user’s dopamine receptors are not the only issue the user faces. If the user has repeatedly used cocaine they have developed what is called a drug tolerance. The tolerance is the body becoming use to the euphoric effect that cocaine uses and requiring more for the same feeling. The user develops what is called a kindling effect, which is the phenomenon of the development of a pattern of sensitization with respect to motor behavior and brain excitation. This development is extremely dangerous because it has the potential for producing brain seizures. The risks for repeated use of cocaine is the lowering of the threshold for seizures though a sensitization of neurons in the brain over time. This results in deaths at a much lower dosage of cocaine (Robinson, 1993).

Cocaine as the research has shown a strong stimulant whether the purpose be for medicine or recreational use and with that comes a variety of health problems. The short-term effects of cocaine use are the feelings of restlessness. The drug produces a heightened rate of energy making it difficult for the person to calm down and relax. The user suffers from irritability and anxiety quite commonly when using the drug. The user may also experience the feeling of panic or paranoia because of the change in the chemical balance of the body. The use of cocaine elevates the user’s heart rate and constricts the blood vessels. As stated before cocaine can lead to death but also heart attacks such as the one Len Bias suffered in 1986. When there is an overload of cocaine in the system body temperature rises leading to organ breakdown and also hallucinations. Another effect of using cocaine is the loss of appetite leading to a risk of malnutrition. Taking the drug has also been associated to acts of violent behavior. There are numerous other side effects of cocaine such as tremors, vertigo, dilated pupils, decreased sexual function, and muscle twitches or tics (Drugabuse.com).

The long-term effects of cocaine use is chronic and extreme fatigue, intense headaches, abdominal pain, nosebleeds, and significant weight loss (Drugabuse.com). One of the other effects of long-term usage of cocaine is the accelerated aging of the brain. Evidence has shown that cocaine use causes significant loss in the amount of grey matter areas of the brain. There is a belief that continued use of cocaine slows the rate of blood flow through the brain increasing your chance of a stroke. A person’s cognitive skills also suffer due to the drop in dopamine levels and activity in the prefrontal cortex. When cocaine is used this area of the brain becomes impaired and a person’s ability to process data and pay attention decreases (Mental Health Daily).

The emotional changes for cocaine use vary depending on each user but it is common that they become more aggressive. The brain is not able to handle the same amount of stress of the average person and can lash out. A person doesn’t handle stress the same because of the deterioration of the user’s prefrontal cortex where the logic used. The person typically restores to a more animalistic solution because he or she lacks the ability of higher-order functions. These higher-ordered thinking skills are used to solve problems and think critically but with cocaine it deteriorates. Depression is common with cocaine use because of the decreased dopamine levels. These are just a few of the functions that are hindered from the use of cocaine.

The physical effects of cocaine are an entirely different problem in their own. Those who have used cocaine over time develop a decrease in their bone density because they lose their appetite. They also lose muscle mass from not eating enough food. Cocaine over time can also cause the user to develop a chronic cough because of the damage that you have done to the respiratory system. Organ damage such as the liver, kidneys, heart and lungs is common among users of cocaine because of release of methylecgonidine through continued use. The reproductive system also becomes damaged over time from cocaine such as the damage of sperm quality, sperm count and infertility (Mental Health Daily).

Cocaine is a drug that has a long colored history and the use for it as well as the acceptance of the drug has changed over time.

It has provided those in South America an aid in dealing with the hard life associated with living in the Andes. It has seen its use in the medical field for helping patients with pain and has been used for recreational enjoyment. The outlook on this drug varies depending on who and where you ask about cocaine. The drug can be highly addictive and cause serve damage through continued use on both the mental and physical aspects of someone. History has taught us that cocaine can lead to violence as well as the personal downfall of someone’s personal life and it should be treated accordingly. Education is the best form of explaining the consequences of cocaine and through that a nation can only strive for their citizens to be

responsible.