Cocaine can prove fatal at any time
Cocaine creates a paradox of tolerance and sensitization that is not fully understood. With greater cocaine usage, the addict will need to consume larger and more frequent dosages of cocaine in an attempt to get high. Concurrently with this development of tolerance, a process of sensitization to the convulsant and anesthetic properties of the drug can occur, and this can partially explain how a relatively low dose can sometimes prove fatal to an experienced cocaine user.
Cocaine can prove fatal at any time, and an overdose of cocaine can result in cardiovascular difficulties or respiratory arrest. Cocaine is often used in conjunction with other drugs, and this practice, particularly consuming alcohol with cocaine, can be very dangerous. The usage of cocaine is the most common drug related cause of an emergency room visit in the U.S.
In addition, cocaine addicts become fixated on the procurement and use of the drug at the expense of all else in their lives. Physical health, physical appearance, and even basic nutrition become of lesser importance than further cocaine use. Cocaine addicts admitted for treatment are often malnourished and in overall very poor health due to this bodily neglect.
Many addicts progress to the most potent form of administration, injection, and suffer even greater health consequences through their intravenous dosages. Cocaine injection is uniquely damaging due to the frequency of need. While a chronic heroin user may inject a few times a day, an IV cocaine user may inject 30 or more times daily. Cocaine is a vasodilator at the site of administration, and this can lead to sepsis and bacterial infections of the skin and musculature, and the impurities used to cut cocaine can cause bacterial infection, heart infections, vein blockages and vein collapse. Because cocaine needs to be injected so frequently, cocaine addicts are at great risk for HIV or Hepatitis C through the use of shared needles.
Cocaine abuse can happen fast, and recreational use of the drug can so easily become dependant abuse. With cocaine abuse, and the inevitable increases of use, the health deficits become significant and tragic.
page last update Aug 05, 2010
