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How
is cocaine used?
Powder cocaine is generally snorted or dissolved in water and
injected. Crack cocaine is usually smoked.
Who
uses cocaine?
Cocaine
is the second most commonly used illicit drug in the United States.
About 10 percent of Americans over the age of 12 have tried cocaine at
least once in their lifetime, about 2 percent have tried crack, and
nearly one percent is currently using cocaine.
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How does cocaine get to the United States?
The
United States-Mexico border is the primary point of entry for cocaine
shipments being smuggled into the United States.
Organized
crime groups based in Colombia control the worldwide supply of cocaine.
How
much does cocaine cost?
Cocaine
prices depend upon the purity of the product.
In
2001, cocaine purity declined by 8 percent, from 86 percent pure in 1998 to a
78 percent pure in 2001. The decrease in purity indicates a decrease in the
supply of cocaine in the United States.
Cocaine
remained low and stable, which suggests a steady supply to the United States.
Nationwide,
prices ranged from $12,000 to $35,000 per kilogram.
What
are some consequences of cocaine use?
Cocaine
is powerfully addictive.
Smoking
crack can cause severe chest pains with lung trauma and bleeding.
The
mixing of cocaine and alcohol create cocaethylene while increasing risk of
sudden death.
Cocaine-related
deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by
respiratory arrest.
Cocaine is
a powerfully addictive stimulant that directly affects the brain. Cocaine is not
a new drug. In fact, it is one of the oldest known drugs. The pure chemical,
cocaine hydrochloride, has been an abused substance for more than 100 years, and
coca leaves, the source of cocaine, have been ingested for thousands of years.(1)
Pure
cocaine was first extracted from the leaf of the Erythroxylon coca bush,
which grows primarily in Peru and Bolivia, in the mid-19th century. In the early
1900s, it became the main stimulant drug used in most of the tonics/elixirs that
were developed to treat a wide variety of illnesses.(2)
Cocaine
abuse has a long history and is rooted into the drug culture in the U.S. It is
an intense euphoric drug with strong addictive potential. With the increase in
purity, the advent of the free-base form of the cocaine ("crack"), and its easy
availability on the street, cocaine continues to burden both the law enforcement
and health care systems in America.(3)
The
powdered, hydrochloride salt form of cocaine can be snorted or dissolved in
water and injected. Crack is cocaine that has not been neutralized by an acid to
make the hydrochloride salt. This form of cocaine comes in a rock crystal that
can be heated and its vapors smoked. The term “crack” refers to the crackling
sound heard when it is heated.(4)
Today,
cocaine is a
Schedule
II drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, meaning that it has
high potential for abuse, but can be administered by a doctor for legitimate
medical uses, such as local anesthesia for some eye, ear, and throat surgeries.
Blow, nose
candy, snowball, tornado, wicky stick,
Perico (Spanish)
(5)
Cocaine’s
effects appear almost immediately after a single dose, and disappear within a
few minutes or hours. Taken in small amounts (up to 100 mg), cocaine usually
makes the user feel euphoric, energetic, talkative, and mentally alert,
especially to the sensations of sight, sound, and touch. It can also temporarily
decrease the need for food and sleep. Some users find that the drug helps them
perform simple physical and intellectual tasks more quickly, while others
experience the opposite effect.(6)
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.(7)
The
short-term physiological effects of cocaine include constricted blood vessels;
dilated pupils; and increased temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. Large
amounts (several hundred milligrams or more) intensify the user’s high, but may
also lead to bizarre, erratic, and violent behavior. These users may experience
tremors, vertigo, muscle twitches, paranoia, or, with repeated doses, a toxic
reaction closely resembling amphetamine poisoning. Some users of cocaine report
feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. In rare instances, sudden
death can occur on the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter.
Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed
by respiratory arrest.(8)
Cocaine is a
powerfully addictive drug. Thus, an individual may have difficulty predicting or
controlling the extent to which he or she will continue to want or use the drug.
Cocaine’s stimulant and addictive effects are thought to be primarily a result
of its ability to inhibit the reabsorption of dopamine by nerve cells. Dopamine
is released as part of the brain’s reward system, and is either directly or
indirectly involved in the addictive properties of every major drug of abuse.(9)
An
appreciable tolerance to cocaine’s high may develop, with many addicts reporting
that they seek but fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first
experience. Some users will frequently increase their doses to intensify and
prolong the euphoric effects. While tolerance to the high can occur, users can
also become more sensitive (sensitization) to cocaine’s anesthetic and
convulsant effects, without increasing the dose taken. This increased
sensitivity may explain some deaths occurring after apparently low doses of
cocaine.(10)
Use of
cocaine in a binge, during which the drug is taken repeatedly and at
increasingly high doses, leads to a state of increasing irritability,
restlessness, and paranoia. This may result in a full-blown paranoid psychosis,
in which the individual loses touch with reality and experiences auditory
hallucinations.(11)
The amount
of cocaine available in domestic drug markets appears to meet user demand in
most markets, without observable shortfall. However, recent ONDCP analysis of
data from February through September 2005 shows that the purity of available
cocaine could be diminishing at the retail level--reflecting decreases in
potential worldwide cocaine production and significant increases in cocaine
interdiction.(12)
Mexican DTOs
and criminal groups control most wholesale cocaine distribution in the United
States, and their control is increasing. According to federal, state, and local
law enforcement reporting, Mexican DTOs and criminal groups are the predominant
wholesale cocaine distributors in the Great Lakes, Pacific, Southeast,
Southwest, and West Central Regions, and although Colombian and Dominican
criminal groups control most wholesale distribution in the Northeast and
Florida/Caribbean Regions, wholesale distribution by Mexican DTOs and criminal
groups is increasing. For example, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) New
York Field Division reported in 2005 that in some areas of New York City,
Mexican criminal groups have supplanted Colombian criminal groups as the primary
source of multikilogram-quantities of cocaine. Similarly, the Central Florida
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) recently reported that in some
areas of central Florida, Mexican DTOs and criminal groups have supplanted
Colombian and Dominican criminal groups as the predominant wholesale cocaine
distributors and are establishing new distribution networks.(13)
Control
over wholesale cocaine distribution by Mexican DTOs and criminal groups has been
increasing for several years and is likely to continue to increase in the near
term. Cocaine transportation data indicate that most cocaine available in U.S.
drug markets is smuggled into the country via the U.S.-Mexico border. As Mexican
DTOs and criminal groups control an increasing percentage of the cocaine
smuggled into the country, their influence over wholesale distribution will rise
even in areas previously controlled by other groups, including areas of the
Northeast and Florida/Caribbean Regions.(14)
Cocaine is
distributed in nearly every large and midsize city; however, analysis of cocaine
seizure data indicates that several specific cities serve as national-level
cocaine distribution centers through which most domestic cocaine flows (see
National Drug Threat Assessment
Appendix A, Map 6). Midlevel and retail-level distribution of the drug in
these and most other cities is controlled primarily by organized gangs; however,
in smaller cities and rural communities retail distribution typically is
controlled by local independent dealers.(15)
2005 rates
of cocaine use were relatively high, and overall, use appears to be stable.
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the rate of
past year use for cocaine (powder and crack combined) among individuals aged 12
and older (2.4%) has remained stable since 2002; it is much lower than that for
marijuana (10.6%), but is higher than that for methamphetamine (0.6%) or heroin
(0.2%). Among adults, NSDUH data show that rates of past year use for cocaine
(powder and crack combined) among young adults (aged 18 to 25) are stable but
remain the highest among all age groups (see National Drug Threat Assessment,
Appendix B, Table 1). Monitoring the Future (MTF) and NSDUH also indicate
stable rates of adolescent cocaine use (see National Drug Threat Assessment,
Appendix B, Table 2). The number of treatment admissions to publicly funded
treatment facilities for cocaine has decreased since the mid-1990s despite
increased access to drug treatment. Cocaine is the only major drug of abuse for
which treatment admissions have decreased (see National Drug Threat Assessment,
Appendix C, Chart 1).(16)
Among
students surveyed as part of the 2005
Monitoring the Future study, 3.7% of eighth graders, 5.2% of tenth graders,
and 8.0% of twelfth graders reported lifetime(17)
use of cocaine. In 2004, these percentages were 3.4%, 5.4%, and 8.1%,
respectively.(18)
According to
the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH, 2004), 34.15 million
Americans ages 12 and older (14.7% of this age group) had used cocaine once in
their lifetime and 2.0 million were current users of cocaine in 2004. The new
initiates of cocaine abuse were about 1 million in 2004. According to the
Monitoring the Future Study (MTF, 2005), the percentages of eighth, tenth and
twelfth graders reported using cocaine once in their life time were 3.7, 5.2 and
8.0, respectively, while the corresponding numbers for the current cocaine users
(used in the past month) were 1.0, 1.5 and 2.3, respectively. Cocaine abuse
occurs in both genders and among all ethnic groups of the U.S.(19)
Between
October 1, 2004 and January 11, 2005, there were 1,314 Federal offenders
sentenced for powder cocaine-related charges and 1,205 sentenced for crack
cocaine charges in U.S. Courts. Approximately 98.2% of the powder cocaine cases
and 95.2% of the crack cocaine cases involved trafficking. Between January 12,
2005 and September 30, 2005, there were 4,242 Federal offenders sentenced for
powder cocaine-related charges and 4,077 sentenced for crack cocaine charges in
U.S. Courts. Approximately 98.4% of the powder cocaine cases and 95.3% of the
crack cocaine cases involved trafficking.(20)
In 2005,
the DEA seized 118,270 kgs of cocaine. For prior years,
click here.
Cocaine
was first federally regulated in December 1914, with the passage of the Harrison
Act. The Harrison Act banned non-medical use of cocaine; prohibited its
importation; imposed the same criminal penalties for cocaine users that were
levied against users of opium, morphine, and heroin; and required a strict
accounting of medical prescriptions for cocaine. As a consequence of the
Harrison Act -- and the emergence in the 1930s of cheaper, legal, and readily
available drugs like amphetamines -- cocaine became scarce in the United States.
By the 1950s it was no longer considered a problem worthy of law enforcement
attention.(21)
Cocaine
use began to rise again in the 1960s, prompting Congress, in 1970, to classify
it as a Schedule II controlled substance, meaning it was potentially susceptible
to abuse and could produce dependency but had legitimate medicinal uses.(22)
However, it was still not considered by many in the medical profession to be a
serious health threat.(23)
Even as late as 1980, influential scientific writings reflected the prevailing
non-critical assessment of the dangers of cocaine: The 1980 edition of the
Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry asserted that cocaine posed no serious
problem, if use was limited to two or three times a week. Like the cocaine
epidemic that occurred at the turn of the century, cocaine once again was
embraced by the social elite. The deleterious effects of cocaine that were
discovered merely 60 years earlier appeared inexplicably to have been forgotten.
However, by the early 1980s, the nation's attitude toward cocaine had changed
and various law enforcement and public health efforts intended to control its
use were underway.(24)
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1-2. National Institute on Drug Abuse,
Research Report - Cocaine Abuse and Addiction,
www.nida.nih.gov/researchreports/cocaine/cocaine.html.
3. Drug Enforcement Administration, Office of Diversion
Control,
www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugs_concern/cocaine/cocaine.htm.
4. National Institute on Drug Abuse, InfoFacts: Crack and
Cocaine,
www.drugabuse.gov/Infofacts/cocaine.html. Snorting is the process of
inhaling cocaine powder through the nose, where it is absorbed into the
bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Injecting is the use of a needle to
release the drug directly into the bloodstream; any needle use increases a
user’s risk of contracting HIV and other blood-borne infections. Smoking
involves inhaling cocaine vapor or smoke into the lungs, where absorption into
the bloodstream is as rapid as by injection.
5. Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Cocaine
Street Terms
6-11. National Institute on Drug
Abuse, Research Report - Cocaine Abuse and Addiction,
www.nida.nih.gov/researchreports/cocaine/cocaine.html.
12-16. National Drug Intelligence Center,
National Drug Threat Assessment 2006.
17. “Lifetime” refers to use at least once
during a respondent’s lifetime.
18. Office of National Drug Control Policy,
Drug Facts, Cocaine,
www.ondcp.gov/drugfact/cocaine/index.html.
19. Drug Enforcement Administration, Office of
Diversion Control,
www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugs_concern/cocaine/cocaine.htm.
20. United States Sentencing Commission,
2005
Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics, June 2006.
21. USDOJ/OIG Special Report, THE
CIA-CONTRA-CRACK COCAINE CONTROVERSY: A REVIEW OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S
INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS (December, 1997),
www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/9712/.
22. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970.
23. Dr. Peter G. Bourne, a drug expert who
would later become President Carter's Special Assistant to the President on
Health Issues, wrote in 1974: "Cocaine ... is probably the most benign of
illicit drugs currently in widespread use .... Short acting -- about 15 minutes
-- not physically addicting, and acutely pleasurable, cocaine has found
increasing favor at all socioeconomic levels in the last year." Peter G. Bourne,
"The Great Cocaine Myth," Drugs and Drug Abuse Education Newsletter 5: 5
(1974). See also, F.H. Gawin and H.D. Kleber, "Evolving Conceptualizations of
Cocaine Dependence," Yale Journal of Biological Medicine 61: 123-136
(1988).
24. USDOJ/OIG Special Report, THE CIA-CONTRA-CRACK COCAINE
CONTROVERSY: A REVIEW OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S INVESTIGATIONS AND
PROSECUTIONS (December, 1997),
www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/9712/.
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