the truth about cocaine

8/9/2019 The Truth About Cocaine

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the truth about

cocaine

drugfreeworld.org


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WHY THIS BOOKLETWAS PRODUCED

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ocaine is one of the most dangerousdrugs known to man. Once a person

begins taking the drug, it has provenalmost impossible to become free of itsgrip physically and mentally. Physically itstimulates key receptors (nerve endingsthat sense changes in the body) within thebrain that, in turn, create a euphoria to

which users quickly develop a tolerance.Only higher dosages and more frequentuse can bring about the same effect.

Today, cocaine is a worldwide,multibilliondollar enterprise. Usersencompass all ages, occupations and

economic levels, even schoolchildrenas young as eight years old.

Cocaine use can lead to death fromrespiratory (breathing) failure, stroke,cerebral hemorrhage (bleeding in thebrain) or heart attack. Children ofcocaineaddicted mothers come into theworld as addicts themselves. Many suffer

birth defects and many other problems.

Despite its dangers, cocaine use continuesto increase likely because users find itso difficult to escape from the first stepstaken down the long dark road that leadsto addiction.

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Of the dozens of street terms for cocainein use today, the most common are:

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Surveysshow thatrouhly halfof Europeandance clubpatrons havebeen hihon cocaine.

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ocaine is the second most traffickedillegal drug in the world. The most recent

statistics show that international seizuresof cocaine have continued to increase andnow total 756 metric tons, with the largestquantities of the drug intercepted in SouthAmerica, followed by North America.

According to the European Monitoring

Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction,cocaine is also the second most commonlyused illegal drug in Europe. Among young

people (15 to 34 years), an estimated7.5 million have used cocaine at least oncein their life, 3.5 million in the last year and1.5 million in the past month.

In the United States, the 2006 NationalSurvey on Drug Use and Health reports that35.3 million Americans aged 12 and olderreported having used

cocaine. Amongyoung adultsaged 18 to 25,


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the pastyear use rate was 6.9%. Among highschool students, 8.5% of 12th graders hadused cocaine at some point in their young lives,according to the 2006 Monitoring the FutureStudy by the National Institute for Drug Abuse.

In the United States, cocaine continues to bethe most frequently mentioned illegal drugreported to the Drug Abuse Warning Network

by hospital emergency departments. Therewere 448,481 emergency department visitsinvolving cocaine reported in 2005.

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12 Cocaine causes heart, kidney, brain and lun damae.

ShorTTerM effecTS

Loss of appetite Increased heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature Contracted blood vessels

Increased rate of breathing Dilated pupils Disturbed sleep patterns Nausea Hyperstimulation Bizarre, erratic, sometimes violent behavior Hallucinations, hyperexcitability, irritability Tactile hallucination that creates the illusion

f gs wing nd skin Intense euphoria Anxiety and paranoia Depression Intense drug craving Panic and psychosis Convulsions, seizures and

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LongTerM effecTS

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What bean as a reliioustradition in the Andes has turnedinto abuse throuhout the world.

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oca is one of the oldest, most potent andmost dangerous stimulants of naturalorigin. Three thousand years before the birthof Christ, ancient Incas in the Andes chewedcoca leaves to get their hearts racing and tospeed their breathing to counter the effectsof living in thin mountain air.

Native Peruvians chewed coca leaves onlyduring religious ceremonies. This taboo was

broken when Spanish soldiers invaded Peruin 1532. Forced Indian laborers in Spanishsilver mines were kept supplied with cocaleaves because it made them easierto control and exploit.

Cocaine was first isolated

(extracted from coca leaves)

in 1859 by German chemist Albert Niemann.It was not until the 1880s that it started to

be popularized in the medical community.Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud,who used the drug himself, was the first tobroadly promote cocaine as a tonic to curedepression and sexual impotence.

In 1884, he published an article entitled

ber Coca (About Coke) which promotedthe benefits of cocaine, calling it amagical substance.

Freud, however, was not anobjective observer. He used

cocaine regularly, prescribedit to his girlfriend and his bestfriend and recommended itfor general use.


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While noting that cocaine had led tophysical and moral decadence, Freud keptpromoting cocaine to his close friends, oneof whom ended up suffering from paranoid

hallucinations with white snakes creepingover his skin.

He also believed that For humans the toxicdose (of cocaine) is very high, and thereseems to be no lethal dose. Contrary to thisbelief, one of Freuds patients died from ahigh dosage he prescribed.

In 1886, the popularity of the drug gota further boost when John Pembertonincluded coca leaves as an ingredient in hisnew soft drink, CocaCola. The euphoric andenergizing effects on the consumer helpedto skyrocket the popularity of CocaCola by

the turn of the century.From the 1850s to the early 1900s,cocaine and opiumlaced elixirs (magical

or medicinal potions), tonics andwines were broadly used by peopleof all social classes. Notablefigures who promoted the

miraculous effects of cocainetonics and elixirs includedinventor Thomas Edison andactress Sarah Bernhardt.The drug became popular inthe silent film industry and theprococaine messages coming

out of Hollywood at that timeinfluenced millions.

Cocaine use in society increasedand the dangers of the druggradually became more evident.Public pressure forced the CocaColacompany to remove the cocaine from

the soft drink in 1903.

By 1905, it had become popular to snortcocaine and within five years, hospitals and


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medical literature had started reportingcases of nasal damage resulting from theuse of this drug.

In 1912, the United States government

reported 5,000 cocainerelated deaths inone year and by 1922, the drug was officiallybanned.

In the 1970s, cocaine emerged as thefashionable new drug for entertainers andbusinesspeople. Cocaine seemed to be the

perfect companion for a trip into the fastlane. It provided energy and helped peoplestay up.

At some American universities, thepercentage of students who experimentedwith cocaine increased tenfold between1970 and 1980.

In the late 1970s, Colombian drug traffickersbegan setting up an elaborate network forsmuggling cocaine into the US.

Traditionally, cocaine was a rich mans drug,due to the large expense of a cocaine habit.By the late 1980s, cocaine was no longerthought of as the drug of choice for the

wealthy. By then, it had the reputationof Americas most dangerous andaddictive drug, linked with poverty,crime and death.

In the early 1990s, the Colombiandrug cartels produced and exported500 to 800 tons of cocaine a year,

shipping not only to the US butalso to Europe and Asia. Thelarge cartels were dismantled bylaw enforcement agencies in themid1990s, but they were replaced bysmaller groupswith more than 300known active drug smuggling organizationsin Colombia today.

As of 2008, cocaine had become the secondmost trafficked illegal drug in the world.


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The Truth

About DrusDrugs are essentially poisons. The amounttaken determines the effect.A small amount acts as a stimulant (speeds youup). A greater amount acts as a sedative (slows

you down). An even larger amount poisons andcan kill.

This is true of any drug. Only the amount neededto achieve the effect differs.

But many drugs have another liability: theydirectly affect the mind. They can distort the users

perception of what is happening around him orher. As a result, the persons actions may be odd,irrational, inappropriate and even destructive.

Drugs block off all sensations, the desirableones with the unwanted. So, while providingshortterm help in the relief of pain, they alsowipe out ability and alertness and muddy ones

thinking.Medicines are drugs that are intended to speedup or slow down or change something about theway your body is working, to try to make it workbetter. Sometimes they are necessary. But theyare still drugs: they act as stimulants or sedatives,and too much can kill you. So if you do not use

medicines as they are supposed to be used, theycan be as dangerous as illegal drugs.


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The real answer is to etthe facts and not to take

drus in the first place.


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People take drugs because they want tochange something in their lives.

Here are some of the reasons youngpeople have given for taking drugs:

To fit in

To escape or relax

To relieve boredom

To seem grown up

To rebel

To experiment

They think drugs are a solution. Buteventually, the drugs become the

problem.

Difficult as it may be to face onesproblems, the consequences of drug useare always worse than the problem oneis trying to solve with them. The realanswer is to get the facts and not to

take drugs in the first place.

WHY DO PEOPLE TAKE DRUgS?


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REFERENCES

European Monitoring Centrefor Drugs and Drug Addiction,State of the Drug Problem inEurope, 2008

U.S. Drug Enforcement AgencyFact Sheet on Cocaine

National Institute on DrugAbuse: NIDA Info Facts: Crackand Cocaine, April 2008

United Nations Office on Drugsand Crime, Drug Report 2008

Cocaine Facts & Figures,Office of National Drug ControlPolicy, 2008

Monitoring the Future:National Results on AdolescentDrug Use Overview of KeyFindings 2007, NationalInstitute on Drug Abuse

PHOTO CREDITS: Page 2, 8:Corbis; page 16: Freud MuseumPhoto Library.

Millions of copies of booklets such asthis have been distributed to peoplearound the world in 22 languages.As new drugs appear on the streets and

more information about their effectsbecomes known, existing booklets areupdated and new ones created.

The booklets are published by theFoundation for a DrugFree World, anonprofit public benefit organizationheadquartered in Los Angeles, California

The Foundation provides educationalmaterials, advice and coordination for itsinternational drug prevention network.It works with youth, parents, educators,volunteer organizations and governmentagenciesanyone with an interest in

helping people lead lives free from drugabuse.


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For more information or to obtain more copiesof this or other booklets in this series, contact:

Foundation for a DrugFree World1626 N. Wilcox Avenue, #1297

Los Angeles, CA 90028 USA

drugfreeworld.org email: [email protected]

Pn: 1888 No to DruGS (1888 6686378)

FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW

This booklet is one in a series of publications that cover the facts about marijuana, alcohol,

Ecstasy, cocaine, crack cocaine, crystal meth and methamphetamine, inhalants, heroin,

LSD and prescription drug abuse. Armed with this information, the reader can make thedecision to live a drugfree life.

2008 Foundation for a DrugFree World. All Rights Reserved. The Foundation logo is a trademark owned by theFoundation for a DrugFree World. Item #C6231 USENG

TM

the truth about cocaine

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