Crack Cocaine: An Overview

What Is Crack Cocaine?

Crack cocaine is a freebase form of cocaine that is created from the white, odorless powder which constitutes cocaine. Cocaine is a drug created from a plant called Coca which grows in warm equatorial climates. Traditionally, the coca plant was used as medicine and later on cocaine started to be considered a medicine itself. Only over the last few decades has cocaine started to be seen as an addictive drug that can lead people down a difficult path.

What Is The Difference Between Crack Cocaine and Cocaine?

Crack cocaine needs cocaine to be created, for a start. Crack cocaine is made from the cocaine powder and it is smoked instead of snorted or injected. Smoking allows the drug to go into the bloodstream only a few seconds after going into the lungs.

Crack cocaine is much cheaper to produce and as a consequence it is a much accessible drug for people in low-income urban areas. Cocaine is considered to be a very addictive drug, although it is only addictive psychologically - crack cocaine has the strength of cocaine psychological addiction plus a lot of social issues that go with the use of the drug. Additionally, many crack cocaine users continue smoking to ward off unpleasant withdrawal symptoms like anxiety and headache.

Ultimately, crack is cheaper and therefore more accessible than cocaine. Even though cocaine is dangerous in its original recreational form, crack is arguably more dangerous because, compounded with the rest of relevant issues, it can be even more habit forming than cocaine.

What Are The Effects of Crack Cocaine?

Immediately after smoking the crack from a pipe, the user gets a rush of euphoria. This rush is momentary, lasting only from a few seconds to a few minutes. The user might start to feel an overwhelming sense of confidence in him or herself and might start to come across as arrogant. The user's eyes will look glazed over and his or her pupils will be enlarged. The user might become anxious or paranoid. Additionally, after the first rush, the user might then smoke more crack to 're-dose' and to experience the rush again.

What Are Some of The Signs of Crack Cocaine Use?

Users may only look like they are under the effect of crack sometime after they have smoked it but there are other noticeable signs of crack use that non-users can identify. The crack user might be experiencing significant weight loss, stop eating for a considerable amount of time and then start to binge on food, disturbed sleeping patterns where the user is sleeping at strange times or does not seem to be sleeping at all, starting to meet with a totally different group of peers in different places and a general carelessness about hygiene and appearance. The user might start stealing from loved ones, have a marked decrease in performance at school or work and even stop showing up. Dealing with crack cocaine addiction is a serious problem that only a mental health professional that specializes in addiction can help with.