Cocaine Overdose?People
who inject cocaine can experience severe allergic reactions
and, as with any injecting drug user, are at increased
risk for contracting HIV and other blood-borne diseases.
Crack-cocaine delivers an intensity of pleasure completely
outside the normal range of human experience. Providing
the optimal combination of treatment and services for each
individual is critical to successful outcomes. The high
from snorting may last 15 to 30 minutes, while that from
smoking may last 5 to 10 minutes.
Other complications associated with cocaine use include disturbances in heart
rhythm and heart attacks, chest pain and respiratory failure, strokes, seizures
and headaches, and gastrointestinal complications such as abdominal pain and
nausea. Drugs such as cocaine or amphetamines, if taken on their own and to excess,
can easily have the reverse effect. Whole communities can be disrupted by crack-abuse.
But it also can be heated into a liquid and its fumes inhaled through a pipe
in a method called freebasing.
The compulsion may become utterly obsessive. Ingesting cocaine can cause severe
bowel gangrene due to reduced blood flow. Some users of cocaine report feelings
of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety.
One of NIDA's top research priorities is to find a medication to block or greatly
reduce the effects of cocaine, to be used as one part of a comprehensive treatment
program. Different means of taking cocaine can produce different adverse effects.
NIDA-funded researchers have found that the human liver combines cocaine and
alcohol and manufactures a third substance, coca ethylene, which intensifies
cocaine's euphoric effects, while potentially increasing the risk of sudden death.
On the street, pure cocaine is diluted or cut with other substances to increase
the quantity, and thereby increase the profits of its sellers. Freebasing is
also a common method of using a form of cocaine called crack. Cocaine-related
deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizure followed by respiratory
arrest. |
