98 Cocaine
body temperature, which can be problems if a person engages in strenuous
physical activity such as wild dancing.
Abuse factors.Before the 1970s cocaine smoking was never popular because
the necessary heat destroyed much of the drug’s potency. In that decade,
however, the practice of freebasing cocaine began. That process allowed the
drug’s potency to be retained when smoking it, thereby allowing a route of
administration providing the same intense impact formerly available only
through intravenous injection. Freebasing, however, involves volatile chemi-
cals that can explode in a flash fire if they are mishandled. In the 1980s illicit
chemists discovered a much safer way to modify cocaine into a smokable
format. The resultant product was known as crack cocaine and became the
most notorious illicit drug sinceheroin.
A few seconds after inhaling crack smoke a user can experience a sense of
well-being and joy accompanied by what has been described as a total body
orgasm, followed by a few minutes of afterglow.
Tolerance is reported. Debate exists about whether a cocaine addict expe-
riences physical withdrawal symptoms upon giving up the drug. A consensus
holds that any physical consequences caused by the initial phase of abstinence
can be less serious than those that develop when withdrawing from opiates
and far less serious than withdrawing from alcohol or barbiturates.
Drug interactions. Cocaine masks some effects of alcohol, encouraging
drinkers to ingest larger quantities of beverages. Alcohol’s effects are longer
lasting than cocaine, however, so a person functioning adequately under both
drugs can suddenly become very drunk as the cocaine intoxication ends. If
that transition happens while a person is operating dangerous machinery
(such as a car), for example, the consequences may be disastrous. Cocaine’s
influence on the heart and liver seem increased by alcohol.Mazindolboosts
the elevation that cocaine causes in pulse rate and blood pressure and makes
those changes last longer. Mice experiments indicate possible fatal interaction
if a cocaine-using asthmatic is treated with aminophylline (a combination of
ethylenediamine and theophylline). Cocaine abusers also tend to be extra sus-
ceptible to the benzodiazepine class of depressant drugs. In animal experi-
mentscaffeineandnicotineboost cocaine effects. Naloxone, a drug used to
counteract opiate actions, can boost cocaine effects in humans. For many years
some medical practitioners have mixed adrenalin with topical applications of
cocaine in order to make anesthetic effects last longer. The reason adrenalin
interacts in that way with cocaine is unclear, and the custom is disputed. What
works when applying cocaine to a body surface for anesthesia does not nec-
essarily work in other contexts. Seeking to stretch out effects of recreational
cocaine with various substances can be so unsuccessful as to require hospi-
talization for unexpected interactions. In some manipulations of a rat experi-
ment the tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline reduced cocaine actions.
Cancer.Cocaine’s potential for causing cancer is uncertain.
Pregnancy.The drug’s potential for causing birth defects is uncertain. Some
animal experiments produce birth defects; some do not. In the 1980s and 1990s
cocaine was widely reported to have devastating impact on mental ability of
infants whose mothers used the drug during pregnancy. Scientists have been
unable to verify those reports. Evidence is growing that offspring tend to