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Nearly one in every five overdose deaths that occurred in 2023 was attributed to cocaine. In the 20-year period between 2003 and 2023, this number rose from 1.8 to 8.6 deaths per 100,000 U.S. residents.
Cocaine is a strong stimulant that has dramatic effects on the central nervous system (CNS). Cocaine taken in many ways, including orally, snorting, smoking and injecting, all of which cause the drug to enter the bloodstream and take effect within seconds.
What Is Crack Cocaine?
Crack cocaine is a crystallized form of cocaine mixed with other chemicals that is hardened into a rock-like object. When a person uses crack cocaine as their drug of choice, they smoke the rock in a pipe. When the rock is heated, it makes a cracking sound, which is why this form of cocaine is called ‘crack.’
Crack cocaine casts a long shadow on public health in the United States. This highly addictive and illegal substance can quickly spiral into a debilitating cocaine use disorder. Millions of Americans find themselves entangled in this struggle, facing severe health risks down the road. Long-term crack use significantly increases the chances of developing high blood pressure, chest pain, and even heart attacks. It can also exacerbate or trigger mental health problems.
Thankfully, the darkness of addiction doesn’t have to be permanent. Effective treatment programs offer a beacon of hope.
These programs go beyond the surface, exploring the underlying factors that may have contributed to crack dependence. They provide a structured and supportive environment, empowering individuals to break free and reclaim their health. If you or someone you know is battling crack cocaine addiction, reaching out for professional help is the first step toward a brighter future.
Crack Cocaine Side Effects on the Brain
Since crack is smoked, the drug reaches a user’s brain incredibly quickly. This stimulates the user’s reward system and rapidly increases dopamine levels in their brain, which causes a potent rush of energy, confidence, and euphoria.
This artificially high level of dopamine reinforces crack use as an important behavior to be prioritized even over survival behaviors like eating and sleeping. When combined with a quickly developing tolerance that will drive the user to smoke larger and larger amounts of crack to feel the same effects, the user will easily become addicted within a short period.
Addiction is a chronic brain disease that results in the user compulsively seeking out and using crack despite the terrible consequences of their drug use.
Crack Cocaine Effects on the Body
Crack cocaine will have a variety of effects on a user’s body. The high begins seconds after the drug is inhaled and will last about 5 to 15 minutes. Effects of crack include hyperstimulation, euphoria, fever, and increased heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure.
Cardiovascular Effects
The unnatural increases in heart rate and blood pressure put enormous strain on the cardiovascular system, leading to heart and blood vessel damage. Crack also damages the immune system, making the user more vulnerable to disease.
Tweaking
Crack use causes a user’s pupils to dilate and makes them restless and jumpy. As the high lasts a relatively short time, a person will repeatedly use to maintain their high, which can lead to uncontrollable twitching movements known as “tweaking.”
Weight Loss
Using crack cocaine can also cause a person to forget to eat and drink, resulting in malnutrition and rapid weight loss.
Skin Wounds
Crack can cause the sensation of bugs crawling under the skin, which will lead users to pick at their skin until they have wounds, which can easily become infected.
Sleep Loss
Crack abuse also causes users to lose sleep, which leads to a range of negative mental and physical consequences. People need rest to recover from the damage being done throughout their brain and body, but the drug prevents them from doing so.
Serious Medical Complications
Medical complications will soon develop from using crack. Heart attacks, strokes, and seizures may occur even after just one or two uses and can lead to coma and sudden death. This danger increases when the user combines alcohol with crack cocaine, which amplifies the cocaine side effects.
Long Term Effects of Crack Cocaine
Since crack cocaine is one of the most addictive drugs, it is often the hardest for a person to stop taking altogether. When a person keeps on using crack, their brain will trigger them to have tremendous cravings, causing them to want to take the drug more frequently and in higher doses.
When the exposure is repeated, the brain will start to adapt. This leads to an inability to feel pleasure from normal levels of dopamine. The person may sink into a depression that can only be relieved by more crack.
When the user starts to smoke crack cocaine in “binges,” the drug will start to cause severe irritability, panic attacks, and paranoia. It is also common for the person to experience psychosis that causes them to lose touch with reality altogether. These psychotic episodes can easily recur with repeated crack use.
Once an individual has stopped using crack cocaine, their chance of relapsing is higher than almost any other drug, as it takes a long time for the brain’s pleasure and reward center to heal and normalize. This is why addiction treatment, continued therapy and peer support meetings are essential for long term success.