People may not always know the exact consequences of the drug they are taking, however, chances are that they do know that the drug is unhealthy for them.
When a person uses cocaine, it gives them, what many call a”rush”. There is close to one or two minutes of complete pleasure. This is followed by five to 8 minutes of euphoria, then as the high comes down, there is an urge for more which could last for a day.
When cocaine goes into the area of the brain where the dopamine is located, it blocks the reuptake pumps that remove the dopamine from the synapse of the nerve cell. This feeling continues until cocaine is naturally removed from the system.
The first time people use cocaine and its effects fade, they want more. Which that’s what the drug is used for. The main reason cocaine use continues is the need to experience the “high.”
While it may seem like science knows a great deal about addiction and the effects of cocaine, scientific knowledge cannot make the cocaine problem disappear. There is no sure cure for cocaine addiction. Once you try the drug, addiction strikes and it is very hard to overcome.
In 1997 there was an estimation of 1.5 million people in America that were current users. 3.6 million people were estimated to have now been current cocaine users. People who were 18 to 25 years old have more of a chance to have used cocaine than any other age group. Being 2015, cocaine is still a very serious problem in the United States. In 1998, there was a survey shows that the highest levels of eighth grader to have used cocaine was in 1991. The percentage of eighth graders reporting crack use at least once in their lives increased from 2.7 percent in 1997 to 3.2 percent in 1998. Data has shown that from the Drug Abuse Warning Network, it shows that cocaine-related emergency room visits, had increased 78 percent between 1990 and 1994.Effects of cocaine appear almost immediately after a single dose, and disappear usually within a few minutes or hours. Taken in small amounts cocaine usually makes the user feel energetic, talkative, and mentally alert, especially to the sensations of sight, sound, and touch. It can also, for a short time, decrease the need for food and sleep. Some people who use cocaine find that the drug helps them to perform simple physical and intellectual tasks more quickly, while others can experience the opposite effect. Some of the short term effects of cocaine is increased energy, decreased appetite, mental alertness, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, constricted blood vessels, increased temperature and dilated pupils. Once having tried cocaine, an individual may have difficulty predicting or controlling the extent to which he or she will continue to use the drug. It is said that the long term effects of using cocaine is due to being affected of the nerve system by the drugs that are in cocaine. Dopamine is part of the brain’s reward system and is usually either directly or indirectly involved in addictive properties of any major drug abuse.
Some of the long term effects of using cocaine is irritability, mood disturbances, restlessness, paranoia, and auditory hallucinations . Also some of the complications of cocaine abuse are disturbances in heart rhythm, heart attacks, chest pain, respiratory failure, strokes, seizures, headaches, abdominal pain, nausea