164 CHAPTER 4
When the energy reserves are exhausted, or the drug wears off, a “crash” is inev-
itable and the tendency is to take more pills to get back “up.” The person taking these
pills finds that it takes more and more pills to get the same stimulant effect (drug toler-
ance). Nausea, vomiting, high blood pressure, and strokes are possible, as is a state called
“amphetamine psychosis.” This condition causes addicts to become delusional (losing
contact with what is real) and paranoid. They think people are out to “get” them. Vio-
lence is a likely outcome, against both the self and others (Dickinson, 2015; Kratofil et al.,
1996; Paparelli et al., 2011).
COCAINE Unlike amphetamines, cocaine is a natural drug found in coca
plant leaves. It produces feelings of euphoria (a feeling of great happiness),
energy, power, and pleasure. It also deadens pain and suppresses the appe-
tite. It was used rather liberally by both doctors and dentists (who used it in
numbing the mouth prior to extracting a tooth, for example) near the end of
the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, until the
deadly effects of its addictive qualities became known. Many patent medicines
contained minute traces of cocaine, including the now famous Coca-Cola™
(this popular soft drink was originally marketed as a nerve tonic). The good
news is that even in 1902, there wasn’t enough cocaine in a bottle of cola to
affect even a fly, and by 1929, all traces of cocaine were removed (Allen, 1994).
Cocaine is a highly dangerous drug, not just for its addictive properties.
Some people have convulsions and may even die when using cocaine for the
first time (Lacayo, 1995). It can have devastating effects on the children born
to mothers who use cocaine and has been associated with increased risk of learning dis-
abilities, delayed language development, and an inability to cope adequately with stress,
among other symptoms (Cone-Wesson, 2005; Eiden et al., 2009; Kable et al., 2008; Mor-
row et al., 2006). Laboratory animals have been known to press a lever to give themselves
cocaine rather than eating or drinking, even to the point of starvation and death (Chahua
et al., 2015; Glangetas et al., 2015; Iwamoto & Martin, 1988; Ward et al., 1996).
Although cocaine users do not go through the same kind of physical withdrawal
symptoms that users of heroin, alcohol, and other physically addictive drugs go through,
users will experience a severe mood swing into depression (the “crash”), followed by
extreme tiredness, nervousness, an inability to feel pleasure, and paranoia. The brain is
the part of the body that develops the craving for cocaine because of chemical changes
caused by the drug (Glanetas et al., 2015; Hurley, 1989; Schmitt & Reith, 2010).
to Learning Objective 2.3.
As addictive as cocaine is, there is one other stimulant that is usually described
as even more addictive. Most experts in addiction seem to agree that although crack
cocaine (a less pure, cheaper version found on the streets) produces addiction in nearly
three fourths of the people who use it, nicotine produces addiction in 99 percent of the
people who use it (Benowitz, 1988; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC],
2002, 2004; Franklin, 1990; Henningfield et al., 1991; Hilts, 1998; Jamal et al., 2015); Per-
rine, 1997).Hasn’t nicotine just been the victim of a lot of bad press? After
all, it’s legal, unlike cocaine and heroin.NICOTINE Every year, nearly 480,000 people in the United States die from illnesses
related to smoking, costing more than $300 billion in health care and productiv-
ity losses annually. That’s more people than those who die from accidents in motor
vehicles, alcohol, cocaine, heroin and other drug abuse, AIDS, suicide, and homicide
combined (Jamal et al., 2015; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010).
Remember, cocaine, heroin, morphine, and many other currently controlled substancescocaine
a natural drug derived from the leaves
of the coca plant.
Far from being illegal, cocaine was once used in many health
drinks and medications, such as this toothache medicine used
in the late 1800s.