“You should try everything once.”
Pretty sure now, that mom was referring
to our ripe fruits and veggies and was not advising to try recreational drugs.
But for many of us, intake of drugs is a bigger draw than getting greens.
According to the statistics of Center for Diseases Control, 37 percent of
millennials have taken up the responsibility of trying illicit drug in the past
one year.
Isn’t that shocking?
As Marijuana and Molly became
more of a brand, cocaine which is a harder stuff remains more of a mystique.
Don't you want to know what it does to your brain? Can you become addicted to
it after trying it just once? Read on to find out!
The Origin of the FOO-FOO Dust
Cocaine also known as ‘cock’ or ‘blow’
is hardly a new player. The chemical compound that is used to fuel modern high
originated from Erythroxylon coca bush, leaves of which have been used for more
than 1000 years. Starting 1500s, it was
also found and recorded that Peruvians and Incans chewed the leaves of coca
bush which helped them to relieve depression and served as an anesthetic. Cocaine was brought back to Europe but it was
not before 19th century that cocaine was made a part of Western Medicine and
the purer compound – modern day cocaine was created.
Did you know? Cocaine was used as
one of the earliest ingredients in Coca-Cola. Though it was removed in 1903.
Initially, the drug was lauded
both for its effects as a psycho stimulant and as a local anesthetic.
Sigmund Freud, Father of Modern
Psychoanalysis, frequently prescribed it as a cure for importance and
depression.
The darling drug of doctors was
ruled out very soon. It became evident that it’s nature which was highly
addictive and destructive, resulted in the death of patients and addicted docs.
As a result Cocaine was officially banned by the U.S. government in 1922.
Cocaine started earning a
reputation as a high-priced high in the 1970s. It popularly came to be known as
the King's Habit. The white powder has a typical lace of inert substances like
sugar, cornstarch, talcum powder through which dealers have their way to dilute
their product. But some street varieties are very potent like cocktail mixed with
procaine. It’s a local anaesthetic, chemically which is quite similar to amphetamine,
a stimulant found in Methamphetamine. Taking cocaine while drinking and mixing
the drug like this seriously ups the odds of overdo. And Not a good cocktail?
Is it?
Today Cocaine has been classified
as a Schedule II drug, as it has a high potential for abuse. But
still it can be administrated by a doctors for genuine medical reasons
like as a local anesthetic or typically in paste form, or for some surgeries.
(It’s uncommon, but still above board.)
Cock popularly known as the “Champagne
of Drugs”, was something admired
in the hard-partying between 80s and 90s and it still remains
as one of the most expensive drug per gram in the world. Today also it remains pretty
much steady over the 21st century.
The Science Behind This Crisscrossing Dynamite
Cocaine is a psychoactive drug,
capable of directly altering brain functions causing changes in mood,
perception and consciousness whether it
may be smoked, shot or snorted. Cocaine
seems so lovely that you won't stop it. Think how a child is fond of chocolates
and sweets.
“That’s why people start binging,
so they can sustain their more intense highs.” as reasoned by Dr. Indra
Cidambi. The intensity and dangers of the high intake has to completely
do with how you take the drug, says Indira Cidambi, M.D. and an Addiction
Expert and Medical Director at the Center for Network Therapy. ‘Smoking crack cocaine’, also
called as crack or rock is a rock crystal version of the drug that’s made by
mixing cocaine and baking soda. It hits the brain in just about 8 seconds and
sticks around for five-to-ten minutes high. After snorting a line of coke, it
takes about five minutes to go to our
head, but the high is sustained anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. “If the
high is too quick then it is a stronger high, but it doesn’t stay
for very long time,” says Cidambi.
This cocaine candy sugar is
capable of triggering massive dopamine release, the brain chemical known for
creating pleasure synapses and encourages us to repeat behaviors, such as
exercise, eating or having sex. Yet the high from cock isn’t the same as the
endorphin rush you get after a tough workout, delicious meal or a romp between
the sheets. Questionable though? Users may seem super talkative, bizarrely
energetic, but also seem angry, restless and even paranoid.
The problem
Effects of Coke go beyond a brief
feeling of Euphoria. You may feel a dangerous rise in blood pressure and in heart
rate when it hits your system, as well as a higher risk of blood clots and
heart arrhythmias. It’s other side effects are dilated pupils, constricted
blood vessels, increased body temperature, reduced appetite and headaches. When
it is snorted, it may cause a chronic runny nose and may even screw up nasal
cavity.
Since coke effects the heart ,
using coke may lead to an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and a
quadrupled risk of sudden death. “It’s
very dangerous and can be fatal,” says Paul, a Neurology Professor and Director
of the Center for Neuro-economics Studies. “Emergency wards are usually
filled with a lot
of stroke and heart patients every weekend because of coke.”
Crossing the Deadly Line of
Addiction.
The resultant increase of
dopamine when we take in coke is something
a million times more than what the brain responds to naturally. To start
with the behavior of cocaine which is quite reinforcing has the tendency
to replace that of sex or food.
Secondly, the brain very quickly acclimates or desires these high levels of
dopamine, including cravings resulting in to have difficulty to curb this
vicious habit of cocaine. For most people, a single use does not
lead to addiction. “But it seems that for
10 to 15 percent of the population can be leading to addiction in one
use, depending on major causing factors like adverse childhood, genes and especially the one involving abuse.”
Since cocaine’s high is relatively
short-lived, it comes at a price. “, The crash, or comedown takes place around 15 to 16 minutes after the
last use of cocaine as said by Corinne
Laird, L.C.S.W, a clinical social worker
who specializes in addiction
counseling. “There is a a significant drop in the levels of dopamine
that brain sees and depression
comes over which is often accompanied by
symptoms like anxiety, remorse, paranoia and the craving to have more cocaine comes in naturally to save from these
disturbing feelings.”
The dopamine crater which is
left by indulging in cock can leave us feeling seriously down. It’s a
state that lasts from one day to up to a week. During this low and depressed
state of mind, the desire to have more gets intense leading to addiction.
It’s more concerning when this
heightened action which goes in your brain actually changes your
dopamine-producing neurons permanently. Desensitized neurons need more of the
drug to have the same dopamine release.
Though the data is still unclear
on how much the pleasure-fond dopamine is required to change your brain’s own dopamine release, it
is seen that a modest number of uses (around 10) probably causes some brain
damage for most users, as said by Zak.
Conclusion
Trying cocaine once, doesn’t mean
that it’s your way to rehab and environmental factors such as stress and
genetic factors like specific gene variants are responsible to have tie up with
your personal proclivity for addiction. It is important to note that whether
you’re prone to or not, this high-status high doesn’t pass through your system
without giving you serious and fatal side effects.
