Cocaine Addiction Information
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Crack Cocaine
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Short-term Effects:
Crack causes a short-lived, intense "high" that is immediately followed by the opposite — intense depression, edginess and a craving for more of the drug. People who use it often don't eat or sleep properly. They can experience greatly increased heart rates, muscle spasms and convulsions. The drug can make people feel paranoid, angry, hostile and anxious — even when they aren't "high".
Smoking crack can also cause severe chest pains, lung trauma and bleeding. Regardless of how much the drug is used or how frequently, cocaine increases the likelihood that the user will experience a heart attack, stroke, seizures or respiratory failure — any of which can result in sudden death.
Long-term Effects:
As tolerance to the drug increases, it becomes necessary to take greater and greater quantities to get the same "high." Prolonged daily use causes sleep deprivation and loss of appetite. A person can become psychotic and begin to experience hallucinations.
As cocaine interferes with the way the brain processes chemicals, one needs more and more of the drug just to feel "normal." People who become addicted to cocaine (as with most other drugs) lose interest in life.
Coming down from the drug causes severe depression, which becomes deeper and deeper after each use. This can get so severe that a person will do almost anything to get the drug — even commit murder. And if he or she can't get cocaine, the depression can get so intense it can drive the addict to suicide. "
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