Street name: Coke, Snow, Crack, Freebase, Rock, Charlie.

Description: Cocaine – white powder.
Cocaine freebase – small white chips.

Therapeutic use: As a local anaesthetic for eyes, ears and nose (rarely used).

Street use: Cocaine hydrochloride: sniffed/injected. Cocaine freebase: heated and inhaled, increasing reports of injection.

Drug effect: Strong stimulant, local anaesthetic.

Dependency: Yes (mainly psychological).

Withdrawal: Effects last for 15 to 30 minutes. Effects of freebase/crack last for only 5 to 10 minutes. Mild feelings of sleepiness, hunger and depression. After the ‘high’, users experience a ‘crash’ or rebound dysphoria when they feel extremely tired or depressed.

Long-term use: Can result in excessive restlessness and insomnia. Weight loss. Mental confusion. Increase in blood pressure. Paranoid psychosis.
If sniffed – damage to nasal membrane, damage to septum between nostrils.
If injected – circulatory problems, infection risk.
If inhaled – respiratory problems and lung damage.

Overdose risk: high doses can result in increase in body temperature, extreme agitation, convulsions and respiratory arrest. Overdose risk increases if cocaine is mixed with other drugs such as heroin or depressants like barbiturates or alcohol.

Legal status: Cocaine is a prescription only medicine and a Class A controlled drug. It is illegal to possess cocaine or to supply it to others.

Maximum penalty:
For possession: 7 years and/or unlimited fine
For dealing: Life and/or unlimited fine.

COCAINE HYDROCHLORIDE (COCAINE/COCAINE FREEBASE)

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