Cocaine

• Other names:
  
  Coke, Snow, Charlie, C, Flake

• What is it?
  
  Cocaine is a powerful central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that heightens alertness, inhibits appetite and the need for sleep and provides intense feelings of pleasure. It is prepared from the leaf of the Erythroxylon coca bush, which grows primarily in Peru and Bolivia.

• What does it look like?
  
  Cocaine is generally sold on the street as a hydrochloride salt - a fine, white crystalline. Street dealers dilute it with inert (non-psychoactive) but similar-looking substances such as cornstarch, talcum powder and sugar or with active drugs such as procaine and benzocaine (used as local anaesthetics) or other CNS stimulants such as amphetamines.

• What are its effects?
  
  Cocaine short-term effects appear soon after a single dose and disappear within a few minutes or hours. Taken in small amounts it usually makes the user feel euphoric, talkative and mentally alert especially to the sensations of sight, sound and touch. It can also temporarily dispel the need for food and sleep. Paradoxically, it can make some people feel contemplative, anxious or even panic-stricken. Some people find that the drug helps them perform simple physical and intellectual tasks more quickly; others experience just the opposite effect. What if it's heavy? Large amounts intensify users' high but may also lead to bizarre, erratic and violent behaviour. These users may experience tremors, vertigo, muscle twitches, paranoia or, with repeated doses, a toxic reaction closely resembling amphetamine poisoning. Physical symptoms may include chest pains, nausea, blurred vision, fever, convulsions and coma. Death from a cocaine overdose can occur from convulsions, heart failure or depression of vital brain centres controlling respiration. While many of the physical effects of heavy continuous use are essentially the same as those of short-term use, the heavy user may also suffer from mood swings, paranoia, loss of interest in sex, weight loss and insomnia.

• How is it used?
  
  It can be snorted into the nostrils, although it may be rubbed onto the mucous lining of the mouth, rectum or vagina. It can also be injected but you run the risk of been infected with either HIV or Hep C.

• Is it addictive?
  
  Psychological dependence exists when a drug is so central to a persons thoughts, emotions and activities that it becomes a craving or compulsion. Among heavy cocaine users, an intense psychological dependence can occur; they suffer severe depression if the drug is unavailable, which lifts only when they take it again.

• Legal Status:
  
  Illegal and if you are buying for a friend, you could be done on intent to supply.