Smoking cocaine

How is cocaine smoked? What are the effects? Smoking cocaine causes an intense high that lasts shortly and makes users constantly crave for more. Read here to learn more.

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Cocaine is a powerful stimulant which has been abused for decades. There are two different chemical processes which produce the main forms of cocaine: powder cocaine, and crack cocaine. Crack cocaine can be smoked and it is the most potent and the riskiest form of cocaine.

But, how is cocaine smoked? What are the effects of cocaine? In this article we will review the way smoking cocaine affects users. In case you have any additional questions or simply want to share your personal experience, we invite you to post us your feedback in the comments section below. We try to read and respond to all legitimate comments.

What does smoking cocaine do to you?

Cocaine is smoked because the lungs provide an extremely quick and effective path for the drug to enter the bloodstream. When the smoke meets the large surface area in the lugs, it goes through the membrane and cocaine reaches the brain within 8 seconds.

Smoking cocaine makes you feel more alert, energized, confident, and awake. You may experience tension in your muscles, which can be followed by an increase in heartbeat. You can also expect to feel exhilaration as a result of excessive dopamine release. Elevated blood pressure also occurs as a result of the faster heart rate, which causes the blood vessels to constrict. This situation can become risky due to a possibility for heart attack, stroke or cardiac arrest.

Does smoking cocaine work to get you high?

Yes, smoking cocaine will get you high.

There is one downside to this method of administration: the high is intense and felt faster, but it lasts for a shorter period of time. Crack has the ability to create an intense high experience almost immediately, which usually lasts 5-15 minutes. Sometimes users stack up doses and continue to use one dose after another before the euphoria wears off. This practice is dangerous and can lead to numerous unwanted consequences.

Although the first effects of crack diminish pretty quickly, other general cocaine effects last longer. Effects may continue for 1-2 hours (depending on the dose) after you smoke the drug.

Smoking cocaine side effects

You should know that if you smoke crack, addiction is a possibility. But, there are many other physical and psychological risks associated with cocaine abuse, including:

  • acute respiratory problems (coughing, shortness of breath, and lung trauma and bleeding)
  • aggressive and paranoid behavior
  • cardiac arrest
  • constricted blood vessels
  • increased temperature, heart rate and blood pressure
  • seizure
  • sexual dysfunction
  • reproductive damage and infertility
  • delirium or psychosis
  • death

Smoking cocaine on tin foil

When we talk about smoking cocaine, we usually refer to freebase cocaine, which unlike cocaine salt, has a low melting point. This is a property that makes it easier to smoke. Freebase cocaine is actually hard to use through injecting because it is relatively insoluble in water – a quality that makes it difficult to dissolve the drug for injection.

The procedure of smoking cocaine on tin foil usually includes placing crack on a piece of tin foil, then heating it from below with a lighter and inhaling the smoke through some type of straw. However, crack is typically smoked using a glass pipe.

Smoking cocaine with weed

Marijuana and cocaine are drugs with different/opposite effects when taken: marijuana is a downer and cocaine an upper. Many users who smoke too much crack will not smoke marijuana at the same time, but will attempt to “come down” with weed.

Sometimes, the combination of cannabis and cocaine is unintentional. Dealers can lace weed by sprinkling powdered cocaine or crack cocaine into a joint or blunt. This can be very dangerous, especially for users without tolerance to cocaine.

The combination crack cocaine or unrefined cocaine and marijuana is known by the slang term “Bazooka”. When taken together, crack and weed can confuse the mind of someone who may be experiencing drug-induced psychosis, making the symptoms much more frightening. If a person has been smoking crack for several days and has not slept or eaten properly, marijuana is possibly going to cause hallucinations and/or paranoid reactions.

Is smoking cocaine bad for you?

Yes.

Firstly, smoking this drug is illegal. Cocaine is classified as a Schedule I narcotic drug because you can get addicted to cocaine. It has no known medical uses. Furthermore, cocaine has harmful effects to the users’ health and leads to aggressive and paranoid behaviour, severe damage to the heart, liver and kidney damage, and infectious diseases.

Finally, note this: smoking cocaine does not only deteriorate you health, but can also take its toll on your education, professional career, family, or financial state.

Can you smoke cocaine?

YES, cocaine can be smoked…this doesn’t mean you should, though.

Let’s verify your coverage for treatment at an American Addiction Centers location. Your information is always confidential.

 

Smoking cocaine questions

Do you still have questions about smoking cocaine? If so, please let us know by posting in the designated section below. We respond to all legitimate cocaine questions with a personal and prompt response.

Reference sources: CESAR:Crack Cocaine
Justice: Crack Cocaine Fast Facts
NIH: Snorting vs. smoking cocaine: different addictive liabilities
NCBI: Cocaine and Psychiatric Symptoms
About the author
Lee Weber is a published author, medical writer, and woman in long-term recovery from addiction. Her latest book, The Definitive Guide to Addiction Interventions is set to reach university bookstores in early 2019.
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