Cocaine is extracted from coca leaves and was originally developed as a painkiller. Cocaine is known as one of the most dangerous drugs out there because once you have taken it, it has proven extremely difficult to get out of its physical and mental grip.
It has many names, a couple of common ones are coke or nose candy. It is also commonly known as dice or jelly beans, and there are many, many other names.
When it is in powder form it is known as cocaine and when in crystal form it is known as crack cocaine.
Crack cocaine comes in blocks or crystals and varies between yellow, pale pink and white. It is heated and smoked and gets its name from the cracking sound it makes as it is heated. Crack cocaine is usually 75% to 100% pure which is drastically stronger than normal cocaine, because of this, and the fact it is smoked, it is a lot more potent. Smoking it allows the drug to reach the brain faster and therefore bring about a more intense, though shorter, high. For this reason, people often get hooked after only one try.
The physical and mental effects of coke and crack cocaine are the same, however in crack they can be stronger or more immediate.
Some of the short-term effects are bizarre, erratic, violent behaviour, hallucinations, mood alteration, including euphoria and paranoia, depression, panic, convulsions, increased heart rate, disturbed sleep and the list goes on.
In the long term it is just as bad, effects can include high blood pressure, heart problems, stroke, liver, kidney and lung damage, respiratory failure, sexual dysfunction, hallucinations, disorientation, exhaustion, psychosis or death.
