Street Names:
C, coke, snow, crack, nose candy.

Description:
Fine, white, crystalline powder, often diluted with sugar, cornstarch, talcum powder, laxative, etc. as well as other substances which imitate its numbing effects such as benzocaine.  Can be sniffed, smoked or injected.  The typical dose when sniffed is 30 to 100 mg., and when injected is 10 to 25 mg.  Crack is a smokable, free-base form of cocaine which has become increasingly available on the street.  It is made by adding baking soda to a cocaine solution.

Origin and Medical Uses:
Derived from leaves of the South American coca bush.  The practice of sniffing cocaine began around the turn of the century.  It was also consumed in the form of tonics and beverages.  It is still used as a local anaesthetic for some surgery, but is largely replaced by less toxic substances.

Short Term Effects:
Effects resemble those of amphetamines with shorter duration.  The user feels euphoric, energetic, and alert.  The user experiences a rapid heart beat and breathing, high body temperature, dilated pupils, sweating, pallor, and decreased appetite.  Large doses can cause erratic or violent behavior, tremors, uncoordination, twitching, hallucinations, pain or pressure in the chest, nausea, blurred vision, fever, muscle spasms, convulsions and death.  Impurities in street cocaine may produce a fatal allergic reaction.  Users may experience insomnia and stuffy nose as a "hangover" or withdrawal from cocaine.  The use of "crack" produces immediate and very intense effects.  

Long Term Effects:
Restlessness, extreme excitability, insomnia, suspiciousness, hallucinations and delusions, weight loss, constipation, impotence, difficulty in urinating.  Characteristic signs of chronic cocaine sniffing are stuffiness and runny nose, chapped nostrils, and perforation of the nasal septum.  Heavy use of cocaine is associated with reduced fetal weight and an increased stillbirth and malformation rate.  Cocaine abuse is also associated with cardiac arrhythmias, myocardiac infarctions (heart attacks), strokes, seizures, and sudden deaths.

Tolerance and Dependence:
Cocaine and amphetamines can produce very powerful psychological dependence involving extremely compulsive patterns of use.  Physical dependence may also develop.  Withdrawal symptoms may include fatigue, long but disturbed sleep, strong hangover, irritability, depression and violence.

Sources:

(1).  Straight Facts About Drugs & Drug Abuse, Revised Edition, Health and Welfare Canada, copyright Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1990

(2).  Drugs and Alcohol Behaviour: An Introduction to Behavioral Pharmacology, Second Edition, by William A. McKim, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Prentice Hall, 1991

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