Cocaine is a powerfully addictive drug and Crack is the even more addictive derivative of this dangerous drug. No one has been able to predict or even control how much of this drug they will use or they keep using this drug. Eventually they will become addicted. There is no doubt about this. Once you become addicted, according to www.drugabuse .org even after being abstinent for a long while “the risk of relapse is high.” Even while abstinent your brain and body remember using the drug and certain experiences and memories associated with using the drug can cause the one to crave and possibly relapse.
Continued use of Crack Cocaine makes your brain adapt to the drug. The user builds up a tolerance to the drug and they will need to use more of it more often to feel that same high they did in the beginning. Frequent users of Crack Cocaine become sensitive, have anxiety attacks and suffer from convulsions.
Binges
Crack binges are common. Often Crack Cocaine users get high more and more using more and more of the drug. This makes the user irritable, panicky, restless and paranoid. The user can become psychotic as well. When this happens the user can lose touch with reality and hallucinate. The more of the drug the user uses and the more often the user uses the drug can have psychological or physiological effect on the user.
Although there are many different ways to use and abuse cocaine, snorting it up the nose or injecting it into the blood stream, smoking crack cocaine is by far the most popular and in my opinion more dangerous. Research has found that chronic crack cocaine users lose their appetite and experience significant weight loss and suffer from malnourishment.
Cocaine is a very addictive and the psychologically affects can be irreversible. Studies have discovered that monkeys addicted to cocaine will press a bar more than 12,000 times to get a single dose of cocaine and as soon as they get it, they will start pressing the bar for more.
Narconon provides effective drug rehab for crack cocaine addiction.
Crack Cocaine chemically alters the reward system of the brain. People who smoke crack, regularly according to the National Drug Control Policy are allowing the drug to trap the chemical dopamine in the spaces between their nerve cells. Dopamine is the natural chemical that creates the feelings of pleasure we get from having fun or doing things we love to do like eating, or even having sex. However, users of Crack Cocaine keep stimulating those dopamine cells. This is the “High”, that feeling of euphoria users feel for about 5 to 15 minutes. Eventually the drug wears off and the person is left felling depressed. This makes the user want more and more to feel good again. It is a vision cycle and a downward spiral of addiction that will not end positively.
Crack Destroys
The brain of the Crack Cocaine user is overloaded with dopamine so its natural defense is to destroy some of it, create less of it or shut down the dopamine receptors. What results after long term Crack use is that the user builds up a tolerance to the drug and needs to take more get high. Ultimately it becomes difficult to stop using and finally need it to function on a normal level again.
It doesn’t take long to become addicted to Crack Cocaine. However the length of time from casual use to abuse then addiction can vary from user to user. Some can build up a high tolerance with after short term use and some have died after taking small amounts of Crack Cocaine.
After a person stops smoking Crack Cocaine as with most abused drugs the user will suffer a crash or withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms include the following
- Intense cravings for the drug
- Irritability
- Agitation
- Anxiety
- Exhaustion
- Anger
- Depression
Who is at Risk?
Crack has no specific group of people it targets. It has been used and abused by children, teens adults and the elderly. It has been found in every nook and cranny of America since the early 1980’s.
According to the 2009 Monitoring the Future Study Crack Statistics, among high school students surveyed, 2.1% of eighth graders, 2.3% of tenth graders, and 3.2% of twelfth graders reported lifetime use of crack cocaine. In 2008, these percentages were 2.6%, 4.6%, and 6.0%, respectively. And in a 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, it was found that approximately 68 percent of eighth graders, 75 percent of tenth graders, and 65 percent of high school seniors surveyed see smoking crack cocaine occasionally as a ”great risk”. Furthermore, more than 1% of college students and nearly 4 percent of young adult from 19-28 surveyed in 2007 admitted to lifetime use of crack cocaine, according to University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future survey. But it doesn’t stop there. The statistics continue.
According to the Arrestees Drug Monitoring Abuse Program reports (ADAM II), the average number of days of crack use in the prior 30 days varied from 6 days at the Washington DC site to 20 days in Atlanta. ADAM II reports that crack use is highest in Atlanta and Chicago (23%) and lowest in New York (7%).
Crack will put you in Jail
About 96% of federal cases involved crack cocaine trafficking in 2008 and there were more than 6,200 Federal defendants sentenced for crack cocaine-related charges in U.S. Courts. Less than 1% of the crack cocaine cases involved simple possession.
Furthermore, the United Stated Sentencing Commission reports that, the low-level crack dealer and first-time offender convicted and sentenced for trafficking crack cocaine receives an average sentence of 10 years and six months. Crack cocaine is the only drug for which the first offense of simple possession can trigger a federal mandatory minimum sentence. Possession of just 5 grams of crack will trigger a 5 year mandatory minimum sentence, as stated by the US Sentencing Commission. Get the facts about Crack.
