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Crack cocaine

Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be smoked. Crack offers a short, intense high to smokers. The Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment calls it the most addictive form of cocaine.[1]

Crack cocaine first saw widespread use as a recreational drug in primarily impoverished neighborhoods in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami in late 1984 and 1985; this rapid increase in use and availability was named the "crack epidemic",[2] which began to wane in the 1990s. The use of another highly addictive stimulant drug, crystal meth, ballooned between 1994 and 2004.[3]

Toxic : Many substances may have been added to expand the weight and volume of a batch, while still appearing to be pure crack. Occasionally, highly toxic substances are used, with a range of corresponding short and long-term health risks. Adulterants used with crack and cocaine include milk powder, sugars such as glucose, starch, caffeine, lidocaine, benzocaine, paracetamol, amphetamine, scopolamine and strychnine.[18]

adulterants

Smoking problems: Any poses its own set of health risks; in the case of crack cocaine, smoking tends to be more harmful than other routes. Crack users tend to smoke the drug because that has a higher bioavailability than other routes typically used for drugs of abuse, such as insufflation. Crack has a melting point of around 90 °C (194 °F),[1] and the smoke does not remain potent for long. Therefore, crack pipes are generally very short, to minimize the time between evaporating and ingestion (thereby minimizing loss of potency).[19][20] Having a very hot pipe pressed against the lips often causes cracked and blistered lips, colloquially known as "crack lip". The use of "convenience store crack pipes"[21]—glass tubes which originally contained small artificial roses—may contribute to this condition. These 4-inch (10-cm) pipes[21] are not durable and will quickly develop breaks; users may continue to use the pipe even though it has been broken to a shorter length. The hot pipe might burn the lips, tongue, or fingers, especially when passed between people who take hits in rapid succession, causing the short pipe to reach higher temperatures than if used by one person alone.

route of administration

Pure or large doses: Because the quality of crack can vary greatly, some people might smoke larger amounts of diluted crack, unaware that a similar amount of a new batch of purer crack could cause an overdose. This can trigger heart problems or cause unconsciousness.

Pathogens on pipes: When pipes are shared, bacteria or viruses can be transferred from person to person.

Overdose

A typical response among users is to have another hit of the drug; however, the levels of dopamine in the brain take a long time to replenish themselves, and each hit taken in rapid succession leads to progressively less intense highs.[4] Nonetheless, a person might binge for 3 or more days without sleep, while inhaling hits from a pipe.[13]


Use of cocaine in a binge, during which the drug is taken repeatedly and at increasingly high doses, leads to a state of increasing irritability, restlessness, and paranoia.[11] This may result in full-blown paranoid psychosis, in which the individual loses touch with reality and experiences auditory hallucinations.[11]


Large amounts of crack cocaine (several hundred milligrams or more) intensify the user's high, but may also lead to bizarre, erratic, and violent behavior.[11] Large amounts can induce tremors, vertigo, muscle twitches, paranoia, or, with repeated doses, a toxic reaction closely resembling amphetamine poisoning.[11]

Society and culture

Synonyms

Synonyms used to refer to crack cocaine include atari; base; bazooka; beamers; beemers; bebe; bee-bee; berry; bing; bolo; bomb; boulder; boulders; butter; caine; cane; Casper; Casper the ghost; cavvy; chemical; chewies; cloud; cloud nine; crills; crunch and munch; dip; famous dimes; fan; fish scale; fries; fry; glo; golfball; gravel; grit; hail; hamburger helper; hard; hubba; ice cube; kangaroo; kibbles and bits; kibbles; krills; lightem; paste; patico; pebbles; pee wee; pony; raw; ready; ready rocks; redi rocks; roca; rock; rooster; rox; Roxanne; scud; Scotty; scramble; scruples; seven-up; sleet; snowballs; stones; teeth; tension; top gun; tweak; ultimate; wash; white cloud; work; yahoo; yale; yay; yayoo; yeah-O; yeyo; yeo; and yuck.[33]

Drug combinations

Crack cocaine may be combined with amphetamine ("croak"); tobacco ("coolie"); marijuana ("buddha"; "caviar"; "chronic"; "cocoa puffs"; "fry daddy"; "gimmie"; "gremmie"; "juice"; "primo"; "torpedo"; "turbo"; "woolie"; "woola"); heroin ("moon rock"); and phencyclidine ("clicker"; "p-funk"; "spacebase").[33]

an experimental vaccine against the effect of crack cocaine being developed by UFMG

Calixcoca

CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking

("paco")

Cocaine paste

Structurally related chemicals: , tetracaine, lidocaine, procaine, hexylcaine, bupivacaine, benoxinate, mepivacaine, prilocaine, etidocaine, benzocaine, chloroprocaine, propoxycaine, dyclonine, dibucaine, and pramoxine

proparacaine

Cooper, Edith Fairman (2002). . New York: Novinka Books. ISBN 9781590335123. OCLC 50684137.

The Emergence of Crack Cocaine Abuse

Ramsey, Donovan X. (2023). . New York: One World. ISBN 9780525511809. OCLC 1385420783.

When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era

The dictionary definition of crack cocaine at Wiktionary

Media related to Crack cocaine at Wikimedia Commons