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Cocaine Overdose Signs, Symptoms and Effects

Brian — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:40:08 +0000

cocaine is a stimulant with characteristics very prone to abuse. cocaine users not only habitually use cocaine but also increase their dosage over time in a futile attempt to repeat or exceed the initial ‘high.’ Not being able to do so, engrossed users step up their intake, forgetting that these will ultimately and inevitably lead to social and health-related problems in the future.

Cocaine is a special drug because cocaine’s effect on the human body is unique to it that no substance known to men can mimic its effect on human body. Furthermore, the effect of the drug varies, depending on the human body taking the drug in. Some body reacts to cocaine influx with restlessness and high level of alertness, energy and euphoria followed by depression, hallucination and anxiety. Some people react exactly the opposite way. What’s scary is that while cocaine does have fatal dosage and lethal dosage wherein you can die 100% and 50% of the time, respectively, many of cocaine users suffer cocaine overdose even in very small amount. It is because the effect of cocaine is relatively the same whatever dosage you take. The effects of prolonged and chronic use can manifest themselves even when the user takes small amounts. It’s dangerous, and not even the doctors can tell what amount and what frequency of use will finally drive the nail into the user’s coffin.

Overdoing Cocaine

Personally, there’s no such thing as using cocaine in ‘normal’ dosage. Cocaine is not on anyone’s recommended daily dietary requirement, unless you are speaking to a drug dealer. No matter what way you look at it, cocaine is a deadly drug, and its capacity to kill an individual increases with constant use. Cocaine affects you the way it should do. It attacks all part of your body, but it focuses much of its attack on the body’s nervous, circulatory, respiratory, and digestive system.

Many cocaine-related deaths are related to the effect of the drug on the brain, the heart and the lungs. Oftentimes, the effects are dangerous, if not deadly. Cocaine use immediately increases the user’s blood pressure, breath rate and pulse. It also spikes his energy and emotion and inhibits the need for food and sleep temporarily. It could also cause convulsions, involuntary if not violent bodily reaction to extreme paranoia, comatose, heart failure, seizures, stroke, lung failure, aneurism, brain hemorrhages, and kidney complications. If you know someone who is using cocaine, you should report it immediately to authorities before something bad happens. Because when things go wrong with cocaine, chances are, it will end that way.

Dangerous Signs and Symptoms of Cocaine Addiction

Brian — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:39:48 +0000

Detecting cocaine abuse is difficult to do during its early stages. While the symptoms presents itself immediately after using the drug, it is usually deemed by many as bodily reaction to environmental stimuli. Cocaine use presents some symptoms similar to work-related stress. As the cocaine use morphs into cocaine addiction, more evident symptoms appear. Most of the time, however, the cocaine abuse is so rampant that it is difficult to stop, and the likelihood of cocaine user’s death is very high.

It is therefore important to observe the physical and psychological condition of people, friends and family members because they are the people who can actually help a cocaine user stop his deadly habit. First thing you should know about cocaine is that it is a strong stimulant, and its effect draw people to constant use the drug.

Immediate Symptoms

Cocaine is a stimulant that targets primarily the brain, the heart and the lungs. The most obvious of the early cocaine abuse symptoms would be concentrated in these areas. cocaine users suffer from insomnia, restlessness, loss of appetite, and high levels of energy and euphoria, which is followed by sudden depression, anxiety, paranoia, and loss of energy. Because of the disruption of normal sleeping and eating patterns, sudden loss of weight could also point to cocaine use. Pupil dilation, involuntary muscle twitches and increased temperature could also indicate cocaine abuse.

The way cocaine is used could also cause the emergence of these symptoms. Sudden ‘bout of cold’ and nosebleed could be more than just reaction of the body to the change of climate. Cocaine users also exhibit this symptom from ‘snorting’ cocaine. Rapid breathing, fast pulse rate and sudden onset of hypertension could also be from ‘slamming’ or injecting cocaine directly into the blood system. This process causes the blood vessels to shrink, causing the symptoms to appear.

Long-term Symptoms

Long-term cocaine symptoms usually appear after several cocaine uses, albeit it could also present on the user’s first try, depending on the user’s relevant history and present health condition. The scary thing with the dependence on the drugs is getting stronger, and the ability of the individual to focus on other thing is getting weaker

Long-term symptoms include sign which point out to habitual use of the drug. People develop these symptoms because of the increasing urge to get as much pleasure as they did from their first encounter with the drug, usually by increasing cocaine dosage. Symptoms like increased irritability, frequent mood swings, paranoia, and hallucinations are usually signs of long-term cocaine use. Advance paranoid psychosis could also result from persistence of these symptoms. High blood pressure, rapid breathing and disrupted pulse rate could develop into more severe signs of cocaine abuse. Cocaine could trigger tachycardia, tachypnea and ventricular fibrillation that could induce chest pain, blurred vision, onset of fever, nausea, muscle spasms, convulsion, seizure, and even coma.

How Much Does a Gram of Cocaine Cost on the Street?

Brian — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:39:29 +0000

cocaine’s market value is prohibitive. Two or three kilos of high-quality cocaine is enough to pay a regular employee working in a small company for a year. The price, however, is not an issue for people who depend on cocaine to get high.

Many people tend to limit the cocaine’s cost to its tag price and, sometimes, jail terms. The real cost of cocaine, however, is beyond its tag price. Lives wasted, families destroyed, community disrupted, these are all prices for using cocaine.

The Actual Cost

Cocaine prices vary directly with its purity, the amount you are buying, where you are buying, and with whom you are dealing with. Generally, a kilo of cocaine costs anywhere from $12,000 to $35,000. Grassroots dealers normally dilute the supply they get with extenders and sell it at a much higher price, normally from $20 to a high of $100 a gram. Crack rock prices vary depending on the size of the rock, which usually ranges from 1/10 to 1/2 grams. They cost anywhere from $3 to $50 a piece, but there are normally priced at $10 to $20.

Columbia, the world biggest producer of coca (and reputedly the source of cocaine), tags its cocaine at $2 a gram. Cocaine costs the highest in New Zealand where, in 2005, a gram of coke costs $714.3. Furthermore, differences in retail price and wholesale prices do exist within a country, which is normally dependent on the government’s level of intervention and domestic competition.

The True Cost

The true cost of cocaine, however, runs far greater than its actual cost. Unfortunately, many cocaine users forget how much the cost is when cocaine enters their system. When you speak of buying cocaine, you are speaking not only of hospital bills, funeral service, jail time, fines, and criminal liabilities. Here, you are talking about something you can actually pay with real money. That’s nothing. Some of the losses, however, are far greater than what was listed above. You are also thinking of throwing away your life, your family, your job, your future, and your dignity.

When you speak of true cost, you are also speaking of the cost beyond the homes of cocaine users. Some users buy the dose of cocaine through criminal activities like prostitution, gambling, robbery, and even murder. You are also speaking of kidnapping, terrorism, degradation of the environment, and other problems particularly in countries like Columbia. Putting it simply, abusing cocaine not only destroy your life: it also destroy somebody else’s lives.

Recovery from Cocaine Addiction and Abuse

Brian — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:39:08 +0000

People visit internet forums asking how come their loving husband, their innocent teenager or their doting father become cocaine slaves overnight. To be able to understand why, you should know what exactly this substance do to the human body. Cocaine is a strong stimulant capable of giving a false sense of euphoria to people who are under some sort of emotional or physical pain. When people can escape these hardships, they will; and cocaine can ‘help’ them escape. Somewhere in the way, escape becomes dependence, and when people depend on a drug rather than on a human for support, chances are, he would sell everything, break every relationship and break every law to find ‘support’ and ‘help’ from cocaine.

Finding Help

cocaine addiction is debilitating disorder. It destroys lives, properties and relationships while they give its user a false sense of hope and happiness. It pushes people to sell whatever they have (including themselves) and to commit violent crimes. Untimely, death from violent activities or from complications in the various organs of the body is likely.

Fortunately, cocaine addiction is not a lifetime condition. Dependence on cocaine can and must be stopped. Given the proper programs, methods and guidance, a person can overcome cocaine addiction and live a normal healthy life. While training programs are there to help victims of cocaine to lead a normal life, only 20% of cocaine addicts are actually recovering from their addiction. Much effort then should be exerted by the government, families and the users themselves to get rid of this debilitating disorder.

The will to commit oneself, a friend or a family to undergo a treatment is one big step towards getting rid of cocaine addiction. It should not, however, end there. Best intentions, friends and family support and money are not enough to end addiction. cocaine users should try to get professional assistance from private institutions, non-government organizations or the government to get rid of yourself, your friend or your family member’s addiction.

What Do You have to Do?

Cocaine recovery program should be there to assist cocaine users who want to get rid of their cocaine addiction. Cocaine recovery program should be able to reverse the effects the cocaine may have in the user’s body. Primarily, it should be able to restore balance in the body’s natural process, restore balance in the body’s dopamine absorption, restore blood vessels to normal condition, erase brainwashing effect of cocaine, restore normal blood pressure, normal breathing and normal pulse rate, and restore normal eating and sleeping pattern. Restitution of former relationship with family, friends and workmates should also be included in the program. Change in the individual’s schedules, people and places should also be taken into account.

Dangerous Short Term and Long Term Cocaine Effects

Brian — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:38:47 +0000

True, cocaine is a strong stimulant, but its immediate effects are not always as obvious as the reason why people get addicted to this drug. Cocaine’s immediate effects are often dismissed as a body’s reaction to stress or from new environment, and normally, detection of substance abuse happens when there’s little time left before the body succumb to drug abuse or when death from violent events happened.

Another reason why immediate effects of cocaine are not readily apparent is because signs of cocaine abuse present itself differently in different individuals. cocaine symptoms vary depending on the person’s current physical condition, past medical history, past history of drug abuse, and age. Studies also confirm that the efficacy of cocaine varies according to gender as well. Some ‘high symptoms’ present a few minutes after cocaine use then presents ‘crash symptoms’ 30 minutes later. This cycle is reversed in other cases. The intensity and time span of the cocaine’s effect and the time intervals between intake, high and crash varies as well.

The Short Term Effects

Short term effects are those immediately felt by the users and those symptoms that present immediately after taking the drug. Many of these effects are not deadly, but there are reported cases of death even after their initial ‘try’ on cocaine, usually because of respiratory and cardiovascular failure, convulsions or seizures.

Common immediate effects of cocaine use includes loss of appetite; restlessness; insomnia; increased level of alertness, temperature and euphoria; rapid breathing and pulse rate; irregular breathing and heart rhythm; and pupil dilation. While these are not deadly per se, many cocaine users got hooked on the drug because of these effects. Appetite suppression is popular among teenagers who want to lose weight. Quick high and increased energy and alertness is popular among workaholics and those who are rushing projects. Euphoria numbs pain and permits people to temporarily forget their hardships.

The Long Term Effects

As a cocaine user develops dependence on cocaine, other cocaine effects will start to appear. The deadly ones usually start appearing during this stage. Common complications among cocaine users includes cardiovascular, respiratory and gastrointestinal complications; involuntary muscle movement; strokes; seizures; nausea; blurred vision; coma; convulsions; chest pain; and fever. Long-term symptoms need no increase in dosage of cocaine to trigger reactions that could lead to death.

More than the physical effects, social and psychological effects also present itself after continuous cocaine abuse. With cocaine dependence setting in, changes in cocaine users’ habits and routine will become more imminent. Change in work-related habits and attitude, lying, cheating, and stealing can become more rampant. Violent actions like murder, robbery or extortion can also occur.

Cocaine Help – Putting an End to Addiction and Abuse

Brian — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:38:27 +0000

cocaine is a strong stimulant. It affects the normal course of sleep and hunger and increases the person’s level of pleasure, alertness and energy. The feeling is then followed by depression, paranoia, anxiety, and exhaustion, a condition often perceived to be solved by having another dose of this drug. Suddenly, something your boss or your classmate gave you in a party is beginning to take control of your life.

Many of the first-time cocaine users find it difficult to part ways with the drug. Many of them tend to sacrifice whatever they’ve got – their family, their work, their possessions, and their future to sate their ever increasing demand for this addicting substance. These situations usually end in tragedy – prostitution, murder, sudden and early death, violence, crime, or jail.

Ending Addiction

cocaine addiction should be stopped before violent events force people using cocaine force them to do so. While prevention is still the best way, early detection of addiction is the best way to stop cocaine dependence for wider avenues are still available to drug users.

A desire to stop dependence on cocaine, or any drug for that matter, is the first step in the process to end craving or compulsion. But it is not just the first step. It is the first, most important, biggest, and the most difficult step one could ever do in his lifetime. Unfortunately, many cocaine users are too engrossed in their habit or in the stage of denial that oftentimes the initiative cannot be expected from them. Others are so ashamed they do not want other people to know their condition. They need help, and usually, the only people who can do such thing beside the user are their friends and families.

Where to Find Help

The web is teeming with information and organization that could help you find help and how to help people addicted to cocaine. Professional counseling and consultation are being made available by government, private and non-government for wider members of the society. Local cocaine users’ rehabilitation centers are usually available in your immediate locality that offers 100% confidential consultation and counseling. House-to-house professional consultation is also available. Counseling and consultation can be done online or through telephone. Free meetings, seminars and focused groups discussions are being made available by groups whose members are former cocaine users or are trying to stop their addiction.

Fighting Addiction

It is difficult to cure addiction to cocaine especially those who are in later stages of addiction. Unlike some commonly abused substance, no other material can mimic the effect the cocaine has in the human body. ‘Crashes’ usually involves more than just anxiety, exhaustion or depression. Stopping cocaine abuse also entails physical discomfort especially for those who have long history with the drug. These side effects, however, are less painful compared to what will happen if a cocaine user would continue to have his dose of the drug. Cocaine users, like all of mankind have their shot in the future. The just have to live their lives to the fullest to enjoy it.

Physical and Psychological Effects of Cocaine Addiction

Brian — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:38:01 +0000

If you want to protect yourself and your family from cocaine addiction, you must first understand the drug – its origin, its appearance, and its immediate and long-term effect on the human body. By doing so, you can teach your children the effect of the drug to them and ultimately to avoid the drug and people who use them.

What is Cocaine?

Cocaine is a fast-acting stimulant that affects the body’s central nervous system, putting off the need to sleep, increase the levels of alertness and energy and inhibits appetite. Because of its effect on the body’s absorption of dopamine, it gives cocaine users a feeling of euphoria, a feeling similar to a batter getting a home run or a soccer player scoring a goal.

Cocaine comes in a wide variety of names, most come from the way they are used or the way the are prepared. Cocaine is also known as Coke, Dust, Nose Candy, Toot, Line, Sneeze, Snow, Powder, Liquid Lady, White Pony, Flake, C, The Lady, Rock, Crack among others. Cocaine, because of its effects, is classified under Schedule 2 Controlled Substances pursuant to the Federal Controlled Substances Act.

What are Its Effects?

The effects of cocaine on the human body vary depending on several factors. The person’s history can affect the reaction of the body as well as the amount and the manner the drug was taken. Short-term and long-term effects exist, and they may be categorized as the physical and psychological consequences of using cocaine.

Immediate physical effects include restlessness, euphoria and alertness, felt within minutes of taking the drug and continue for about 20 to 120 minutes. Insomnia, vomiting, pupil dilation, nosebleeds, increased temperature and pulse rate, rapid breathing also become apparent.

Prolonged use, which is normal for many cocaine users because of its highly addictive properties, could cause cardiac and respiratory failures, strokes, coma, and gastrointestinal problems. Cocaine users could also develop physical addiction to the drug along with vertigo, extreme paranoia and involuntary muscle twitching. Toxic reaction similar to amphetamine poisoning is common to cocaine users. Hepatitis and AIDS could also be transferred through non-sterile needles. Death from overdose, lungs and heart failure and stroke are also common.

Psychological effects include change in the way an individual handles interpersonal relationships. When psychological dependence develops, there is the tendency that the drug will become so central in the person’s thought that the mind can only process information that would help an individual get more access to cocaine. Anxiety, hallucination and depression are common among cocaine users. Severe sleeping and eating disorder can also progress from continuous use.

How to Stop Cocaine Drug Addiction and Abuse

Brian — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:37:34 +0000

cocaine is a powerful drug. It is a stimulant that gives people the feeling of euphoria and has a very high tendency for abuse. Cocaine addiction doesn’t need constant or prolonged use to turn that ‘social’ cocaine binge into full-pledged cocaine dependency. Many of these ‘social’ cocaine users turn into cocaine dependents overnight. Unfortunately, the drug has the capacity to take the center of a user’s mind and life. Users have the tendency to maintain relationships only with people who can give them continuous access to cocaine. It is not surprising that cocaine use can destroy families, bring down small businesses, strains work relationships, and tore away friendships. Sometimes, cocaine user commits crimes just to continue to have access to the drug. Prostitution, murder, robbery, extortion, and kidnapping are normally carried out by addicts when they run out of money. When somebody told you that nothing good comes out of that white powder, better believe it.

Effects of Cocaine Dependency

Prolonged and continuous use of cocaine is lethal even in small dosage. Addiction, hallucinations, irritability, restlessness, and paranoia is often associated with cocaine use. Moreover, constant and repeated occurrence of anxiety, restlessness, paranoia, and hallucination could lead to full-blown paranoid psychosis in some cases, a case where human mind literally breaks from reality.

Cocaine is also known to cause cardiovascular impairments. Hypertension is common to cocaine users because cocaine is known to constrict blood vessels. It also disturbs heart rhythm and cause heart attacks. Cocaine could also cause irregular breathing, chest pain and respiratory failure. Frequent headaches, strokes, seizures leading to coma, abdominal pain, and nausea are results of continuous cocaine abuse. Death by any of the abovementioned cocaine effects is possible.

How to Stop Cocaine Addiction

Saying ‘no’ to cocaine is still the best way to stop cocaine addiction. You can’t have an addiction if you don’t need to have one. Engage in stress-releasing activities. Indulge on sports, find new activities and learn something new. The world offer limitless possibility to enjoy life. The feeling of euphoria is not exclusively experienced under the influence of cocaine.

Cocaine users who wish to stop using the drug should be proud because they have made a major step in getting their lives, things and persons they love back. There are plenty of ways and means to quit using cocaine. Quitting cocaine, however, is no mundane task. Doing it alone, however, is not the way to do it. Cocaine users should realize that they need help when quitting. Family members should know that they are the first set of people who can extend help to cocaine users. It would not be easy, but the predicaments that would result from staying addicted to that white powder are far more difficult than getting out of it.

Signs and Symptoms of Cocaine Drug Users

Brian — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:37:14 +0000

cocaine is an addictive drug. It is a powerful, fast-acting stimulant that affects the normal reabsorption process of dopamine, the body’s natural pleasure and movement messenger. The buildup of dopamine causes the neurons to be stimulated. The sensation is described by users of cocaine users as euphoria.

This characteristic of cocaine is the main reason for its rampant use especially by young adults and teenagers. Despite the effort coming from different government around the world to curb its production, distribution and consumption, millions are still using cocaine worldwide. In USA alone, some 5.5 million American ages 12 and over admitted they used cocaine in 2004 while 1% admitted they used cocaine in November of 2006. Figures are even worse in other places especially in areas where police can do very little to stop the proliferation of these illegal substance.

Cocaine users are very difficult to identify when you look for them in the street. Cocaine users are no longer limited to our imagination. Cocaine users can be your local police, your nanny, your kid’s teacher, your fireman, your postman, and even your husband or wife. Luckily, cocaine use leaves behind some symptoms, both physical and emotional, to the person using it. Thus, if you suspect somebody you know whom you think uses this illegal drug, you can try observing them for some telltale signs of cocaine abuse.

The Physical Signs

Cocaine users normally exhibit changes in their physical condition especially after prolonged use. These changes in physical attributes can be brought about by the effect of cocaine in their body. If you suspect somebody is a cocaine user, look for red and bloodshot eyes. Check the pupils of their eyes if they are hyper-dilated. Frequent nosebleeds and sniffing can be brought about by ‘snorting’ cocaine. Cocaine use also represses hunger, induce nausea and chills and could result to acute weight loss and increased vulnerability to diseases and change to normal human motor activities. Cocaine abuse could increase blood pressure because it constricts blood vessels. If you know somebody that exhibit some or all of these signs, chances are they are using and abusing cocaine.

The Psychological Signs

Cocaine users also experience social, psychological and emotional changes. If you suspect someone of cocaine consumption, you should look into these changes in the individual’s interpersonal relationships particularly with his/her relationship with family, workmates, friends, and schoolmates. Change in sleeping and eating patterns should also be noted particularly when the person exhibits bursts of energy followed by long excessive sleep. Increased irritability, isolation, lying, paranoia, and auditory hallucinations also characterize cocaine users.

Drug Addicts and the Effects of Drug Addiction and Abuse

Brian — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:36:38 +0000

Drug addiction is a condition of being constantly craving for drugs, street or prescription. It is characterized by a compelling need to take drugs and the need for the intoxicated feeling resulting from drug intake. It is a compulsion that does not give any regard to the social, financial, emotional, physical, and psychological effects associated with drug use. It can be considered as a behavioral problem where the person loses control over himself and the need for the drugs overpowers the person’s motivation. Addiction is actually a type of brain disorder which can be treated.

Worldwide Problem

The problem of drug addiction is shared by almost every country in the world, especially the Western countries. Every year, there is an increasing number of people needing treatment for drug abuse or dependency. In fact, this disease is more predominant than heart disease. Every year, thousands of people die as a result of drug overdose or drug-related health conditions. Sadly, the rate of AIDS infection increases along with the rate of drug addiction.

The Drug Addict

A drug addict is a person inflicted with drug addiction. Being an addict, he may or may not be a drug dependent because it is entirely possible to be dependent on drugs without being addicted to them. An example is a person who takes drugs for a debilitating health condition or disorder that may actually improve from taking drugs. He is dependent but not addicted.

A drug addict exhibits an obsessive behavior towards the drugs. He has constant cravings for the drugs and their effects, and he has difficulty quitting. To be an addict and a dependent, a person must have a compulsive need to take the drugs, is taking drugs regularly, and experiences negative symptoms when he cannot or does not take any. A drug addict may be a drug abuser or not, maybe a drug dependent or not.

The effects of drugs differ with every drug user. There are people who uses drugs for recreation but do not develop an addiction for these drugs. Drug addicts usually are predisposed to drug addiction. In fact, they are predisposed to any addiction that they could develop a form of addiction even if not to drugs.

Drug addicts need medical treatment, and there are a lot of treatments and programs available for drug addicts. These include psychotherapy, counseling, cognitive therapy, or combinations of these. If cured, a drug addict can live a fairly happy and healthy life.

sethson.com » Drugs

Cocaine Overdose Signs, Symptoms and Effects

Overdoing Cocaine

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Dangerous Signs and Symptoms of Cocaine Addiction

Immediate Symptoms

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How Much Does a Gram of Cocaine Cost on the Street?

The Actual Cost

The True Cost

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Recovery from Cocaine Addiction and Abuse

Finding Help

What Do You have to Do?

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Dangerous Short Term and Long Term Cocaine Effects

The Short Term Effects

The Long Term Effects

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Cocaine Help – Putting an End to Addiction and Abuse

Ending Addiction

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Fighting Addiction

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Physical and Psychological Effects of Cocaine Addiction

What is Cocaine?

What are Its Effects?

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Signs and Symptoms of Cocaine Drug Users

The Physical Signs

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