Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant that directly affects the brain. The common ways of taking cocaine are sniffing, snorting, injecting, and smoking (including free base and crack cocaine). Also known as coke, snow, nose candy, flake, blow, big C, lady, snowbirds, white.
According to the NSDUH survey in 2004, 34.2 million Americans aged 12 and over reported lifetime use of cocaine and 7.8 million reported using crack. About 5.6 million reported annual use of cocaine and 1.3 million reported using crack. An estimated 2 million Americans reported current use of cocaine, 467,000 of whom reported using crack. There were an estimated 1 million new users of cocaine in 2004 (approximately 2,700 per day), and most were aged 18 or older although the average age of first use was 20.0 years.
Those who abuse Cocaine face many potential serious health problems; disturbances in heart rhythm, increased heart and respiratory rates, elevated blood pressure, being easily angered, mood swings, dilated pupils, extremely talkative, loss of appetite, runny nose. Loss of coordination, perspiration, blurred vision, dizziness. Cocaine can also lead to hallucinations, paranoid delusions, chest pain, tachycardia, respiratory failure, strokes, seizures and heart attacks.
For additional information on Cocaine, visit these websites;
NIDA InfoFacts: Crack and Cocaine
http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/cocaine.html
Fact Sheet - Cocaine
http://www.well.com/user/woa/fscoke.htm
Cocaine
http://www.streetdrugs.org/cocaine.htm
DEA, Drug Information, Cocaine
http://www.dea.gov/concern/cocaine.html
