Absorption Of Cocaine

One can feel the effects of cocaine almost immediately after use, with these effects lasting only a few minutes or hours. The duration of cocaine 's effects depends upon how it is administered. The faster the drug is absorbed, the more intense the high, but also the shorter the duration. The high from snorting is relatively slow to arrive but it may last 15 to 30 minutes. In contrast, the effects from smoking are more immediate but may last only 5 to 10 minutes. “In the brain, cocaine interferes with the chemical messengers -- neurotransmitters -- that nerves use to communicate with each other. Cocaine blocks norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, and other neurotransmitters from being reabsorbed. The resulting

The long term effects of cocaine are very extreme. Once having tried cocaine, an individual may have difficulty controlling the urge to use the drug and the perspective might change leaving the consumption of the drug as primordial. Cocaine’s stimulant and addictive effects are due primarily as a result of its ability to stop the reabsorption of dopamine by nerve

Crack is the smokable form of cocaine, and can only be taken into the body by smoking it. Smoking crack cocaine introduces it into the system faster than other methods (Zonderman and Shader, 660. To smoke it, the crystalline chips are either put into a glass pipe and smoked, or crushed and smoked in a marijuana joint. The chips change to smoke when heated, which is inhaled, drawn into the lungs, and then diffused rapidly into the bloodstream (Edwards, 77). The little sacs of the lungs are lined with fatty tissue that readily absorbs the fat soluble crack (Mickey, 2). Circulating blood transports the dissolved cocaine to the brain where it has immediate effect (Edwards, 77). Crack reaches the brain within seven seconds (Mickey, 2). The effect, called a rush, is caused by the almost pure cocaine's assault on the brain and central nervous system. The central nervous system responds by involuntary movement of the muscles, increased body temperature, and an overstimulation of the pleasure centers of the brain. The high

One of the most detrimental and addictive narcotics in the world today is cocaine. Cocaine dates back as early as 3000 BC. Ancient Incas used the coca leaves to counter the effects of living in thin mountain air. Native Peruvians in the 1500’s chewed the plant strictly for religious ceremonies. Andean Indians are believed to chew the leaves of the coca plant to increase their energy for work while decreasing their hunger and pain. It wasn’t until 1859 when a German chemist Albert Niemann successfully extracted the narcotic from the coca leaf. In the 1880’s, it was freely prescribed by physicians for “maladies as exhaustion, depression, and morphine addiction and was available in many patent medicines” (“Cocaine”), until users and doctors began to realize its dangers and side effects. While it was not fully understood at the time, cocaine has many devastating and lasting effects on the user.

Cocaine has been Shown to block the reuptake of norepinephrine (NE) at the adrenergic nerve ending. Consequently, there is an increase in the postsynaptic stimulation of NE receptors and their target cells because of the increased levels at NE in the synapse. Cocaine’s effect on the adrenergic neurons themselves is inhibition (Dackis & Gold. 1987).

Cocaine gets into the body easily through the lining of the nose. When crack is smoked, the drug goes much more quickly to the brain. And that's the main place where the drug acts. Crack can make blood pressure soar.

The primary methods of ingesting cocaine are snorting, plugging, swallowing, and injecting.The duration of cocaine's effects depends upon the route of administration. The faster the absorption, the more intense the high. But, the faster the absorption, the shorter the duration of the high. The high from snorting is slow, and may last 15 to 30 minutes, while from smoking may last 5 to 10 minutes.

Cocaine is a stimulant drug that can be snorted, injected, or smoked. Cocaine comes from a Coca plant (Hart & Ksir, 2016). It can come from any of the four Erythroxylaceae plants, but it most commonly comes from the Erythroxylon Coca plant (Hart & Ksir, 2016). These plants are commonly grown in South America (Karch, 1998). Cocaine interacts with several neurotransmitters in the brain, such as “Dopamine, Serotonin, Gaba, and Glutamate” (Hart & Ksir, 2016). Upon consumption of the drug it also influences adrenaline reuptake and causes more to be released (Karch, 1998). Cocaine is a popular mainstream drug, it impacts the user positively and negatively, and has known stereotypes associated with it.

After many thousands of years of people chewing on coca leaves from South America to obtain their mildly stimulating effects, the chemical substance, cocaine, is now extracted from that same leaf and is currently classified as a Schedule II drug. Cocaine is a stimulant and can be used legally, in some cases, by medical providers as a type of anesthesia. It is more well-known as an illegal, highly addictive drug that also goes by other names such as coke, snow, and blow. When the chemical cocaine was initially being removed from the coca leaf, more than one-hundred years ago, it was being used as an additive in early medications and in drinks. In the late 1800’s and very early 1900’s cocaine was an ingredient in the popular soda Coca-Cola. In the early 1900’s the addictive nature of products containing cocaine were becoming a concern and

It was the discovery of neurotransmitters and their receptors sites that taught us how psychoactive drugs impact our body. Psychoactive drugs influence specific neurotransmitters. Cocaine mostly affects the dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and acetylcholine neurotransmitters. Norepinephrine acts as a stimulus to increase confidence and epinephrine increases energy. Serotonin helps to control one’s mood and dopamine, helps to regulate the addiction process by stimulating the survival pathway of the survival/reinforcement circuit. Dopamine, a pleasure seeking neurotransmitter, is the primary culprit that disrupts the communication process and the body’s normal survival/reinforcement circuit when affected by cocaine. Normally, dopamine release neurons into the synapse where it can bind to dopamine receptors on neighboring neurons. Then it is recycled back into the transmitting neuron by a specialized protein called the dopamine transporter. When cocaine is administered, it stimulates the nucleus accumbens septi and forces the release of norepinephrine and dopamine from the vesicles. Kalivas (2007) reports that when cocaine accomplishes this task by binding to the dopamine transport protein and blocking their removal, they not only prevent the removal of the dopamine but also create a stimulus signal to the brain that something important has happened. As a result, the cocaine is unable to be reabsorbed by the ventral tegemental area and the brain never gets the message to stop releasing dopamine and increase their concentration and lifetime in the synapse which causes an over-learning of the behaviors that lead to getting the drugs. Inaba and Cohen report that cocaine blocks 60 to 70% of the dopamine reuptake sites. 47% of the sites have to be blocked for a user to feel a drug-induced high. This behavior creates a

Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug. For thousands of years, people in South America have chewed and ingested coca leaves (Erythroxylon coca), the source of cocaine, for their stimulant effects. The purified chemical, cocaine hydrochloride, was isolated from the plant more than 100 years ago. In the early 1900s, purified cocaine was the main active ingredient in many tonics and elixirs developed to treat a wide variety of illnesses and was even an ingredient in the early formulations of Coca-Cola. Before the development of synthetic local anesthetic, surgeons used cocaine to block pain. However, research has since shown that cocaine is a powerfully addictive substance that can alter brain structure and function if used

Physical effects are many. There are constricted blood vessels, increased temperature, increased heart rate, and an increased blood flow. Cocaine is a drug that hurts the body instantly after intake. It messes up almost every internal organ, and just slowly corrodes it. There’s also a form of enhanced senses. There are things such as greater alertness, more energy, and increased self-confidence. There’s also a sense of increased power in one’s body. Cocaine produces its high affect by activating the nerve cells in the brain that releases dopamine. The dopamine lasts for a while until the user becomes aware of the high. Dopamine causes a chemical that can be traced to that of pleasure and mental alertness. What happens with the dopamine is that parts of the brain receives bits of it and stores it in the brain in this reservoir type of thing. This is why it’s pretty dangerous to take a heavy dose of cocaine. The effects of cocaine may go away temporarily, but due to that reservoir the affects can come and go at any moment, which can cause some mental deterioration. Obviously, the bigger the dose, the longer the effects of the dopamine. The end result is that after intake, the body of the user starts getting

Multiple brain functions can be altered also. Cocaine affects pathways that respond to stress which can lead to relapse and continual use to numb the stress. Continual use causes desensitization, which makes someone less likely shock or distress at scenes of cruelty, and violence. Cocaine alters the function of the Limbic system which controls the ability to feel pleasure. “Feeling pleasure leads us to repeat behaviors” (Cocaine).

The drug that this article discusses is cocaine. Cocaine is a very strong agonistic stimulant that is often used as a recreational drug. The second most frequently used illegal drug, cocaine is commonly administered by intravenous injection, snorting and inhalation. Some of the symptoms of the physiological toxicity that may come from consuming cocaine include a fast heart rate, sweating, and large pupils, as well as very high blood pressure or body temperature when consuming high doses. These effects usually begin within seconds of consumption and usually last between five minutes and ninety minutes. The symptoms of the behavioral toxicity often disillusion from reality, mood swings, an intense feeling of bliss, or anxiety. Withdrawals may result in dysphoria, physical aches and pains, depression, cravings and anxiety. The neurotransmitter that is affected by cocaine is dopamine ("How Cocaine affects the Brain").

Cocaine, on the other hand, has been found to have a profound effect on increased dopamine activity. Kennedy & Hanbauer (1983; cited in Karch, 2007) found a strong correlation between cocaine binding and the inhibition of dopamine uptake, and therefore proposed that dopamine transporters are binding sites for cocaine. Such research, which correlates strong reinforcing properties of cocaine with inhibition of dopamine transporters, suggests that cocaine has a more significant affect upon dopamine, than than it has upon serotonin and noradrenaline. The excessive role of dopamine can explain the high degree of pleasure that users of cocaine experience, as well as depression and cravings, which follow.