Crack Cocaine Addiction, Abuse, and Symptoms

How crack cocaine affects the brain

Cocaine impacts how dopamine works in your brain. Dopamine is a hormone that helps regulate a number of bodily functions, including how you feel pleasure. Typically, dopamine recycles, which means your body only has a certain amount of dopamine circulating at any given time. Cocaine turns off the brain functions that recycle dopamine, which means the hormone builds up between your nerve cells and causes a disruption in communication regarding pleasure and reward.

The impact of this dopamine flood is two-fold. First, it provides intense pleasure that reinforces the use of the drug. In short, the brain releases all of the signals it normally reserves for healthy behaviors like eating and exercise. Second, the brain eventually adapts to a state of high dopamine, which means that it can’t function appropriately when presented with normal levels of the hormone. As a result, you can become unable to experience and enjoy normal pleasures and experience withdrawal symptoms if you don’t take in cocaine.

Behavioral signs of crack cocaine usage and abuse

The behavioral signs of the extra dopamine can manifest in a number of ways. First, individuals might seem to “speed up” as the excitement and energy puts their body and mind into overdrive. They may talk faster, rush to complete tasks, or seem to jump from one task to another in an illogical manner. They may also engage in activities that don’t make sense.

Crack cocaine can also drive a user to anger, paranoia, or other highly emotional states or impulsive behaviors. Individuals often lose control of themselves and may have fewer inhibitions because of the stimulant in their system. Individuals who are abusing cocaine may also demonstrate drug-seeking behavior, including lying or engaging in risky or illegal activities so they can obtain more of the drug. This is especially true with crack cocaine because the high is hard and fast, but it wears off quickly.

How crack cocaine affects the body

Cocaine affects more than the dopamine function in your brain. It can lead to a variety of issues throughout your body, including increased heart rate and blood pressure, rapid breathing, and dilated pupils. Long-term use of cocaine can decrease your appetite and even lead to malnourishment, in part because the normal reward and pleasure response that helps regulate how you eat no longer works correctly. Long-term impacts of crack cocaine use can include depression, paranoia, heart attack, stroke, and sexual dysfunction.

Early physical effects of crack cocaine

Because crack cocaine is smoked, drawing a large amount of the drug into the lungs, the early physical effects and euphoric high are almost immediate. Crack cocaine effects can impact the body just minutes after use begins, but they may only last up to 10 minutes.

Severe and long-term physical effects of crack cocaine

Long-term abuse of crack cocaine can lead to serious health complications. In particular, it can lead to 600% higher risk for stroke than nondrug users experience, and cocaine is also associated with an increased risk of mental disorders, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

Other long-term physical effects of crack cocaine can include damage to organs, including the heart and various parts of both the neurological and cardiovascular systems. Crack cocaine users are also at risk for developing poor relationships with food and nutrition, which can lead to malnourishment and all of the physical complications that come with this condition. This is due to the fact that users may seek drugs over other activities meant to provide natural pleasure and reward, such as eating. Smoking crack also damages the lungs, which can lead to respiratory distress and illness.

Global cocaine manufacturing on the rise

According to the World Health Organization, the manufacture of illicit cocaine is on the rise throughout the globe. Statistics indicate it reached a historic high in 2017, with 1,976 tons of illegal cocaine produced throughout the world, an increase of 25% from just the previous year. Global seizures of the illegal substance were 13% higher year-over-year from 2016 to 2017.

Cocaine makes up a large percentage of illegal stimulant drug seizures globally

In the Americas and Europe, cocaine accounted for the bulk of the illegal stimulant seizures in 2017, and in the Oceania region (which includes Australia and parts of Southeast Asia), cocaine accounted for just under 25% of stimulant seizures. In Africa, the drug accounted for slightly under half of stimulate seizures, and it was a small percent of seizures in Asia, where methamphetamines made up the bulk of seizures.

Cocaine-related overdose deaths in the United States are rising

The United States has the highest number of per capita cocaine use in the world, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The National Institute on Drug Abuse notes that overdose deaths from cocaine use have been on the rise since 2012, increasing from just under 5,000 that year to more than 13,000 in 2017. The increase from 2015 to 2016 alone was almost 40%.

Furthermore, according to Jeremy Barnett, a Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor, “There is a strong misconception about crack cocaine that its primary user base is poor individuals. While this was true in the 1980s, as crack was a cheaper form of cocaine, it is no longer the case and is abused by people of all demographics. This creates a powerful stigma, forming a barrier for those who want support but may be unwilling to reach out due to the strong judgments attached to crack cocaine use.”

Use of crack cocaine among older adolescents is trending down

According to the 2018 Monitoring the Future Survey, the prevalence of crack cocaine use among high school seniors trended down in 2018 after a concerning bump between 2016 and 2017. In 2017, 1% of 12th graders reported using crack cocaine in the last year; in 2018, that percentage dropped to 0.9%. The percentage of 12th graders who reported using crack cocaine in their lifetime dropped from 1.7% to 1.5% during the same time period, and the percentage who reported abusing the drug in the past month dropped from 0.6% to 0.5%.