Cocaine aware

Cocaine Aware - Harm Reduction Information

WHAT IS COCAINE?

Cocaine is stimulant drug produced from the leaves of the coca plant (Erythroxylum Coca), The majority of coca cultivation and cocaine production takes place in Columbia, Bolivia and Peru.

The leaves are mashed together with various solvents and other substances to extract the cocaine. This is turned into a white crystalline powder, the most common form of cocaine found in the UK.

WHAT ELSE IS IN COCAINE?

Cocaine is frequently ‘cut’ with other chemicals such as lidocaine, caffeine and sugars, which are used to bulk out the cocaine and mimic some of it’s effects.

The purity of ‘street level’ cocaine can be between 40% and 70%..

HOW IS COCAINE USED ?

Snorted

Cocaine in its powder form is usually snorted through a rolled up note or a small tube, but can be ‘dabbed’ on the end of the fingers or ‘keyed’, using the end of a key.

Smoked

Cocaine can be put through a process which turns it into a form of cocaine which can be smoked, known as Crack.

Injected

Cocaine is mixed with water to make an injectable solution.

Cocaine speeds up your heart rate, breathing and brain activity.

It can make you feel confident, exhilarated, excited and alert on the way up, but can make you feel paranoid, edgy and anxious on the way down.

Physical effects include increased heartbeat and breathing, enlarged pupils, raised blood pressure and body temperature.

The effects, when snorted, start within a few minutes and will last approximately 60 to 90 minutes, depending on how much you use, your mood, your size, how often you have used cocaine before and what other drugs you have taken.

Signs of overdose can include, heavy sweating tremors, confusion, hyperactivity, seizures, stroke, irregular heartbeats. Risk of overdose increases if cocaine is mixed with downers like heroin, sedatives or alcohol.

PROBLEMS

PHYSICAL HEALTH

Cocaine increases your heart rate and can cause it to beat erratically, constrict blood vessels, increase body temperature and increase the risk of a seizure or a fit.

YOUR NOSE

When snorting cocaine it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the lining of your nose, which shrinks the blood vessels and damages the lining of your nose. Symptoms include sneezing, runny nose, nasal congestion and nosebleeds.

MENTAL HEALTH

Cocaine works by altering the balance of chemicals in your brain. When the effects of cocaine wear off you can feel depressed, anxious and paranoid.

The more you use the more you are likely to experience bad feelings. For most people, stopping using cocaine will make these feelings go away, but for some people, especially those who use cocaine regularly, these feelings can continue.

DEPENDENCY

Unlike alcohol or heroin you can’t become physically addicted to cocaine. But, with regular use, you can develop a serious psychological addiction, which can be just as damaging to both your financial and mental health.

DEBT

Building up a tolerance to cocaine can mean you use more to get the same effect. Spending increasing amounts of money on cocaine can leave you seriously in debt.

MIXING DRUGS

Mixing drugs with each other leads to unpredictable and potentially dangerous results. Cocaine and alcohol, used together, produces a substance called cocaethylene, which is more toxic than either substance alone.

ADULTERANTS

Substances used to ‘cut’ cocaine, have health implications of their own. Some are banned substances which have been linked to cancer and kidney damage.

REDUCE THE RISKS

The best way to avoid the risk associated with drugs is not to use drugs.

But if you are using, or considering using cocaine, the advice below will help minimise the risks to your health.

Sharing straws or notes for snorting is very risky. Viruses like Hepatitis and Herpes can be transmitted in snot and blood from the inside the nose
Chopping the powder as fine as possible before snorting, reduces the damage to your nose.
Place your straw high up the nostril.
Change nostrils between each line to lessen damage to one side.
If your nose is bleeding, take a break.
Take general care of the nose and use nasal spray to clean out the nose after a session.
Use less cocaine in each line and space out the time between lines.

IN CONTROL

If you are using cocaine, follow these tips to stay in control.

Only buy what you are going to use during a session. Don’t buy ‘some for later’, ‘later’ will only become ‘now’.
When you have finished a session, find something to keep you busy, that doesn’t remind you of cocaine. This could mean a different place, or visiting friends that don’t use cocaine.
Cocaine will reduce your need to sleep or eat, which in turn can affect your physical and mental health, try to eat a healthy diet and get enough sleep, it will make you feel better.
Don’t mix cocaine with other drugs, particularly alcohol. This can lead to dependence on several drugs, and increase your risk of overdose.
If you start to feel agitated, confused or too hot, go and chill out somewhere cool, take a friend to keep an eye on you.
Repeated cocaine reduces the ‘high’ you achieve when you first use it. You may end up using more to ‘chase the high’, leading to a expensive and damaging habit. Don’t use every day and space out the sessions.