Cocaine

Ben, Chris, and Jacky

What is it?

• Cocaine is extracted from cocoa leaves and was developed as a pain killer.

• It is sniffed or snorted as a powder.

Common Street Names

• Coke• Charlie• Aunt Nora• Bernice• Binge• Blow • C• Dust• Flake• Mojo• Nose Candy

• Paradise

• Sneeze

• Sniff

• Snow

• Toot

• White

How it Enters the Body

• Snorted/ sniffed in powder form

• Injected (goes right to your blood stream)

• Smoked in a rock or crystallized form

History

• Used to be a medicine prescribed by doctors for colds and as pain killers.

• One of the oldest, most potent, and dangerous stimulants of natural origins.

• Used to be used in the production of Coca-Cola.

History• Austrian

psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who used cocaine himself, was the first to openly promote cocaine as a cure to depression as well as sexual impotence.

Statistics

• Cocaine is the second most trafficked illegal drug in the world

• In 15-34 year olds about 7.5 million people have used cocaine at least once

• 3.5 million have used it in the last year

• 1.5 million used it in the last month

Statistics cont.

• 8.5% of 12th graders have used cocaine at some point in their lives

• 448,481 emergency department visits were made in 2005 related to cocaine

• In people ages 18-25 the usage rate of cocaine was 6.9%

• 35.3% of people aged 12 and older have used cocain

Short Term Effects

• Stimulates key pleasure centers in the brain and simulates extreme euphoria

• Tolerance quickly develops

• Short lived high

• Edginess

• Intense depression

• Increased heart rate

Short Term Effects cont.

• Muscle spasms

• Even when your not high you feel angry, hostile and anxious

Long Term Effects

• Because a tolerance develops you need more of the drug to get the same effect

• Prolonged daily use leads to sleep deprivation as well as loss of appetite

• Users often become psychotic and tend to hallucinate

• Permanent damage to blood vessels

Long Term Effects cont.

• High blood pressure

• Liver, kidney and lung damage

• Destruction of nose tissue

How people become addicted…

• Babies can be born addicted from addicted parents, i.e. Crack babies

• People believe it improves work

• Believed to improve focus

• Peer pressure

• People crave better highs after doing other gateway drugs

Fun and Interesting Facts ;D• Ancient Incas chewed Coco

leaves to receive a high• Native Peruvians chewed

Coco leaves during religious ceremonies

• Prescribed regularly by doctors

• Matt Farley died of Cocaine overdose

• Marilyn Monroe used Coke