Tri-DENT
Cocaine Information Overview
Pure cocaine was first used in the 1880s in eye, nose, and throat surgeries as an anesthetic and for its ability to constrict blood vessels and limit bleeding. However, many of its therapeutic applications are now obsolete because of the development of safer drugs.
Cocaine is the most potent stimulant of natural origin. This substance can be snorted, smoked, or injected. When snorted, cocaine powder is inhaled through the nose where it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. When injected, the user uses a needle to release the drug directly into the bloodstream. Smoking involves inhaling cocaine vapor or smoke into the lungs where absorption into the bloodstream is as rapid as by injection. Each of these methods of administration pose great risks to the user.
Crack is cocaine base that has not been neutralized by an acid to make the hydrochloride salt. This form of cocaine comes in a rock crystal that is heated to produce vapors, which are smoked. The term “crack” refers to the crackling sound produced by the rock as it is heated.
Possible Cocaine Effects
Cocaine is a strong central nervous system stimulant. Physical effects of cocaine use include constricted blood vessels and increased temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. Users may also experience feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety.
Evidence suggests that users who smoke or inject cocaine may be at even greater risk of causing harm to themselves than those who snort the substance. For example, cocaine smokers also suffer from acute respiratory problems including coughing, shortness of breath, and severe chest pains with lung trauma and bleeding. A user who injects cocaine is at risk of transmitting or acquiring diseases if needles or other injection equipment are shared.
A tolerance to the cocaine high may be developed and many addicts report that they fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first cocaine exposure. Some users will increase their dose in an attempt to intensify and prolong the euphoria, but this can also increase the risk of adverse psychological or physiological effects.
The duration of cocaine’s immediate euphoric effects depends upon the route of administration. The faster the absorption, the more intense the high. Also, the faster the absorption, the shorter the duration of action. The high from snorting is relatively slow in onset, and may last 15 to 30 minutes, while that from smoking may last 5 to 10 minutes.
Cocaine continues to be the most frequently mentioned illicit substance reported to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) by hospital emergency departments (ED) nationwide. During 2002, it was mentioned 199,198 times and was present in 30% of the ED drug episodes during the year. While cocaine ED mentions were statistically unchanged from 2001 to 2002, they have increased 47% since 1995 when there were 135,711 mentions.
Of an estimated 113 million emergency department (ED) visits in the U.S. during 2006, the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) estimates that 1,742,887 were drug-related. DAWN data indicate that cocaine was involved in 548,608 ED visits.
Production & Trafficking
Cocaine is extracted from the leaves of the coca plant, which is indigenous to the Andean highlands of South America. Much of the cocaine available in the United States is transported from South American nations, particularly Colombia, through the Mexico-Central America Corridor. Despite increasingly aggressive coca eradication efforts, U.S. Government estimates of coca cultivation in South America indicate that cocaine producers potentially produced 970 metric tons of pure cocaine in 2006, a 7% increase from 910 metric tons in 2005 and the highest level since 2002.
During the spring of 2007 Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in several U.S. drug markets reported that cocaine availability decreased and that cocaine shortages were apparent in their jurisdictions. Cocaine shortages were most evident in the Great Lakes, New England, and Mid-Atlantic Regions of the country, but some major drug markets outside these areas also reported indications of decreased cocaine availability. These markets include Atlanta, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco.
Analysis of cocaine purchases submitted for forensic examination by the DEA corroborates intelligence regarding the decline in domestic cocaine availability. From January through June 2007, the average price per pure gram of all domestic cocaine purchases increased 24%, from $95.89 to $118.70, while purity fell 11%, from 67% to 59%.
Epidemiologic sources indicate that prices for powder cocaine range from $20–$30 per gram in New York to $100 in Bangor (Maine), Cincinnati and Minneapolis and can cost as much as $200 per gram in Baltimore and Honolulu. Crack cocaine tends to have a low end street price $10 in such cities as Chicago, Baltimore, Boston and San Diego.
According to 2006 Federal-wide Drug Seizure System (FDSS) data, Federal agencies seized 150,738.7 kilograms of cocaine. FDSS contains information about drug seizures made within the jurisdiction of the United States by the DEA, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Border Patrol, and U.S. Coast Guard.