Cocaine Research Paper

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

First of all this research paper will examine the history of cocaine, answer exactly who used it, effects of the drug and its addictive nature. People choose to write about cocaine so that others can clearly see and understand its historical origins and dangerous properties. Those who experiment with drugs should become aware of their dangerous effects and take caution. The more people that become knowledgeable about cocaine, the more they can protect themselves from seriously endangering themselves. Cocaine users that are seriously dependent on the drug can seek treatment and rehabilitate. Most cocaine users do not realize they have a problem until it becomes too late. Much like the alcoholic, a cocaine dependent’s body

American physicians begin to use cocaine in medical practices. Cocaine was identified as a drug that depresses the central nervous system; however it had the exact opposite affect. The only general anesthetics available to physicians were chloroform and ether. These anesthetics would induce retching or vomit and did little for pain. Operations that required precision and detail

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’s primary effect on the brain is to produce “psychoactive and addictive effects primarily by acting on the brain’s limbic system, a set of interconnected regions that regulate pleasure and motivation. Initial, short- term effect- a buildup of the neurochemical, dopamine which gives rise to euphoria and a desire to take the drug again”(Nestler, 2005, p.4). This is normally seen in some individuals that draw in the drug like through inhaling. It gives them an instant increase in blood, and brain levels. It causes the individual to become addicted to this substance. Cocaine is thought to produce pleasure/reward like any addicted drug

Crack has an effect on the part of the brain that is known as the rewards center. It is the part that makes us happy. Normally how this works is the brain will release dopamine, a feel good chemical neurotransmitter, in response to potential rewards that are coming its way. It will then be recycled back into the same cell that released it. The signal between nerve cells shuts off, then the cycle is then repeated. When someone puts crack cocaine into their body, the cocaine gets sent up to the brain through the bloodstream. It then will attach itself to the dopamine, preventing the dopamine from recycling. This causes it all to build up between the nerve cells and be released all at once, resulting in the powerful rushed high feeling people get. This lasts anywhere between 5 minutes to a half hour. After using it one time, people can become addicted. However, with each use the pleasurable feelings fade away, making people want a bigger dosage, which could lead to a negative

Cocaine Hydrochloride in the early 20th century was used in many ways. Some may say that small doses were added to the drink Coca Cola, that’s where the name come from. I feel as if this is true because Coca Cola is slightly addictive. The original formula of coca cola did have 25mg of cocaine per 100ml of drink. That formula was used as a stimulant for headaches. Cocaine Hydrochloride was an ingredient in patent medicines, tonics, elixirs, and fluid extracts. With the right amount it could save and cure you but if you were given more than needed you would get addicted. Doctors knew what would happen to a patient if they were given to much therefore they created something called the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914.

Cocaine also known as crack cocaine is a stimulant drug, a stimulant raises one’s heart rate, attention and awareness and breathing. Stimulants were used to treat respiratory issues but is now prescribed for individuals with ADHD. In the 1800’s is when cocaine began to be seen as an addicting substance due it’s mood-altering effects on one’s brain. Cocaine can be inhaled through a pipe, when in powder form it can be snorted, and some individuals inject the drug into their bloodstream through intermuscular or intravenously. Individuals that use cocaine repeatedly use the drug within a short time span between each time used so that the euphoric high stays longer. The effects that cocaine has on the central nervous system is so

Cocaine has been shown to be the most common, most potent stimulant out there. It was found in the leaves of the erythroxylon coca plant in the Andean highlands, and it was used for many centuries as a relaxant and energizing tea by natives. It was used in surgeries to numb the nose, throat or eyes. It was useful in these areas because it constricted blood vessels and helped stop blood flow as well as acted as an anesthetic (Virtual Mass Spectrometry Laboratory 2003). Today cocaine is still used in hospitals for the same reason. Cocaine was also thought to be used to treat depression, alcoholism, and addiction to morphine. It was sold in pharmacies in Canada until around 1911. It made a return in the 1960s. Cocaine is illegal and is sold

Cocaine is extracted from coca leaf. People started using it 3000 years before the birth of Christ. They chewed the leaf when they were on the mountain. Nowadays, cocaine is used as the drug, and it is banned in a lot of countries in the world.

- Besides being an extremely addictive and dangerous narcotic, cocaine has some medicinal use. Cocaine has been used as a local anesthetic for eye and nasal surgery. Besides being an anesthetic, it also is a potent vasoconstrictor (constricts the blood vessels around the area where injected [eye or nose]). The vasoconstriction helps reduce bleeding and the systemic circulation of cocaine (into the heart, specifically). More recently, the use of cocaine as an

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

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.

Statistics say that 7.5 million people have used cocaine at least one time in their lifetime, 3.5 million in the last year, and 1.5 in the last year. But why do so many people use it? Some reasons that they use it is so they can fit in, escape the world and be relaxed, to relieve boredom, to act grown up, and to experience new things.

The short-term physiological effects of cocaine use include constricted blood vessels; dilated pupils, increased body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. Larger amounts of cocaine can cause violent behavior. Some cocaine users report feelings of restlessness, irritability, anxiety, panic, and paranoia. Users may also experience tremors, vertigo, and muscle twitches. Along side this, there can be more serve complications such as disturbances in heart rate rhythm, heart attacks, strokes and seizures, headaches, nausea and sudden death. Cocaine- related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest. The article also identifies many of the long term effects such as psychosis, chronic blood vessel damage, live and kidney damage and a variety of other mental health problems. (NIDA, 2010)