Cocaine / Crack

The word "cocaine" refers to the drug in both a powder (cocaine) and crystal (crack) form. It is made from the coca plant and causes a short-lived high that is immediately followed by opposite, intense feelings of depression, edginess, and a craving for more of the drug. Cocaine may be snorted as a powder, converted to a liquid form for injection with a needle, or processed into a crystal form to be smoked.

Cocaine interferes with the way your brain processes chemicals that create feelings of pleasure, so you need more and more of the drug just to feel normal. People who become addicted to cocaine start to lose interest in other areas of their life, like school, friends, and sports.

Street names/slang terms:
Cocaine: coke, snow, nose candy, snowbirds, flake, blow, white, big C, powder, cane, frosty flakes, sugar, white girl, yayo
Crack: rock, freebase, baseball, pebbles, apple jacks, 151, half track, pony

Drug Type:
Cocaine is a potent brain stimulant and one of the most powerfully addictive drugs.

What does it look like?
Cocaine is distributed on the street in two main forms: cocaine hydrochloride is a white crystalline powder and "crack" is cocaine hydrochloride that has been processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water into a freebase cocaine - chips, chunks, or rocks.

How is it used?
Cocaine can be snorted or dissolved in water and injected. Crack can be smoked.

Short-term Effects:
• constricted peripheral blood vessels
• hallucinations
• dilated pupils
• increased temperature, heart rate, blood pressure
• loss of appetite
• restlessness, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue
• temporary euphoria, followed by irritability, depression
• seizures

Long-term Effects:
• paranoia, aggressive paranoid depression
• ulceration of the mucous membrane of the nose (if snorted)
• heart attack
• respiratory failure
• death

Source: Partnership for a Drug-Free America, NIDA, NIAAA