Slang Names For Cocaine

What Is Cocaine?

As a street drug, cocaine looks like a fine, white, crystal powder. Street dealers often mix it with things like cornstarch, talcum powder, or flour to increase profits. In addition, they may also mix it with other drugs such as the stimulant amphetamine, or synthetic opioids, including fentanyl drugs. [1] It is highly addictive. Addiction to cocaine can develop quickly, even after trying it only a few times.

The frequent use of cocaine can cause you to develop a higher tolerance to the drug. Therefore, this may lead you to use greater amounts of it, which can impact your mental and physical health negatively. Do you suspect your loved one using slang names for Cocaine? Learn more about the common names of this drug.

Common Street Names For Cocaine

Cocaine is generally sold on the street as a fine, white powder, known as “coke,” “Coca,” “C,“ “snow,” “flake,“ “blow,” “bump,“ “candy,” “Charlie,” “rock,” and “toot.” A “speedball” is cocaine or crack combined with heroin, or crack and heroin smoked together.

Crack Cocaine Slang Names

Like many other drugs, crack cocaine has a variety of slang terms that dealers and buyers often use to disguise what they are really talking about. Crack cocaine drug use can be easier to spot if you know what people are talking about in reference to the drug.

Another form of cocaine is crack cocaine, which is made from cocaine powder and a chemical solution. After it has hardened, it is broken up into small rocks to be smoked.

There are several standard slang terms for crack cocaine, including:

Cocaine Addiction Statistics

Cocaine use ranges from occasional to repeated or compulsive use, with a variety of patterns between these extremes. Any route of administration can potentially lead to the absorption of toxic amounts of cocaine, causing heart attacks, strokes, or seizures—all of which can result in sudden death.

• Among people aged 12 or older in 2020, 1.9% (or about 5.2 million people) reported using cocaine in the past 12 months.
• In 2021, an estimated 0.2% of 8^th graders, 0.6% of 10^th graders, and 1.2% of 12^th graders reported using cocaine in the past 12 months.
• Among people aged 12 or older in 2020, 0.5% (or about 1.3 million people) had a cocaine use disorder in the past 12 months.
• In 2020, approximately 19,447 people died from a drug overdose involving cocaine. [2]

Health Effects Of Cocaine

Cocaine increases levels of the natural chemical messenger dopamine in brain circuits related to the control of movement and reward.

Normally, dopamine recycles back into the cell that released it, shutting off the signal between nerve cells. However, cocaine prevents dopamine from being recycled, causing large amounts to build up in the space between two nerve cells, stopping their normal communication. This flood of dopamine in the brain’s reward circuit strongly reinforces drug-taking behaviors. With continued drug use, the reward circuit may adapt, becoming less sensitive to the drug. As a result, people take stronger and more frequent doses in an attempt to feel the same high and to obtain relief from cocaine withdrawal.

Short-Term Effects

Short-term health effects of cocaine include:

• Extreme happiness and energy
• Mental alertness
• Hypersensitivity to sight, sound, and touch
• Irritability
• Paranoia—extreme and unreasonable distrust of others

Some people find that cocaine helps them perform simple physical and mental tasks more quickly, although others experience the opposite effect. Large amounts of cocaine can lead to bizarre, unpredictable, and violent behavior.

Cocaine’s effects appear almost immediately and disappear within a few minutes to an hour. How long the effects last and how intense they depend on the method of use. Injecting or smoking cocaine produces a quicker and stronger but shorter-lasting high than snorting. The high from snorting cocaine may last 15 to 30 minutes. The high from smoking may last 5 to 10 minutes. [3]

What Are The Other Health Effects Of Cocaine Use?

Other health effects of cocaine use include:

• Constricted blood vessels
• Dilated pupils
• Nausea
• Raised body temperature and blood pressure
• Fast or irregular heartbeat
• Tremors and muscle twitches
• Restlessness

Long-Term Effects

Some long-term health effects of cocaine depend on the method of use and include the following:

• Snorting: loss of smell, nosebleeds, frequent runny nose, and problems with swallowing
• Smoking: cough, asthma, respiratory distress, and higher risk of infections like pneumonia
• Consuming by mouth: severe bowel decay from reduced blood flow
• Needle injection: higher risk for contracting HIV, hepatitis C, and other bloodborne diseases, skin or soft tissue infections, as well as scarring or collapsed veins

Cocaine abuse is a major worldwide health problem. Patients with acute cocaine toxicity presenting to the emergency department (ED) may require urgent treatment for tachycardia, dysrhythmia, hypertension, and coronary vasospasm, leading to pathological sequelae such as acute coronary syndrome, stroke, and death.

Over the past few decades, body packers have also presented to the emergency department following bag rupture.  The other problem is that many patients have also ingested other illicit agents, including alcohol, which makes management difficult. While cocaine can adversely affect every organ in the body, its most lethal effects are on the cardiovascular system.

Patients suspected of cocaine toxicity may have the following features:

• Hypertension
• Altered mental status
• Seizure
• Chest pain, dyspnea
• Epistaxis
• Headache
• Paranoia
• Neurological deficits
• Hyperthermia
• Vascular spasm and loss of distal pulses
• Extreme diaphoresis
• Severe agitation, restlessness, confusion
• Pruritus
• Blurring of vision
• Corneal ulceration, vision loss
• Diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain (think mesenteric ischemia)
• Excited delirium

Cocaine Addiction Treatment Near Me

If you know or think someone is struggling with polysubstance abuse, or if you suspect someone using slang names for Cocaine addiction, ask them if you can help. Your concern might be just what they need to start their recovery journey, and your support could make all the difference in their success.

Over the past three decades, the rates of overdose from cocaine have gradually increased. In the United States, deaths involving cocaine range from 0.9-1.6 per 100,000 population. Only in the last five years have the rates started to decrease to 0.78 per 100,000 population. People who inject cocaine into the neck veins have been known to develop a pneumothorax, thrombophlebitis, hemothorax, and myositis. In addition, there are reports that intravenous injections can be associated with aneurysms of vessels, resulting in rupture, obstruction, and fistula formation. When cocaine is combined with other illicit and prescription drugs, the mortality rates are also high. [5]

Some of the many modalities applied and practiced within the We Level Up residential treatment facility are:

We Level Up counselors understand and can make a drug addiction therapy recommendation or dual diagnosis treatment best suited to your needs. You may call us today to speak with one of our treatment specialists to answer any of your drug-related questions or if you are suspecting someone using slang names for cocaine.

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